THE  SCIENCE  OF  EDUCATION 

IN  ITS 

SOCIOLOGICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  ASPECTS 

BY 

OTTO  WILLMANN,  Ph.D. 

Authorized  Translation  from  the  Fourth  German  Edition 

BY 
FELIX  M.  KIRSCH,  O.M.Cap. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 


SflsiJJ 


VOLUME  I 


AFCHABBEY  PRESS,  BEATTY,  PENNSYLVANIA 
1921 


IMPRIMI  PERMITTITUR. 

FR.  THOMAS  PETRIE,  O.  M.  CAP.,  MIN.  PROV. 

.PlTTSBURGI,  PA.,  DIE  2Oa  JUL., 


IMPRIMATUR. 


CAROLUS, 

EPISCOPUS  PlTTSBURGENSIS. 


COPYRIGHT,  1921, 
BY  THE  ARCHABBEY  PRESS. 


nnb  irnf^fnlh; 


PREFACE. 


IN  his  latest  Report  the  President  of  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, Dr.  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  makes  the  following  con- 
fession :  "  For  a  quarter  century  past,  American  educational 
practice  has  been  steadily  losing  its  hold  upon  guiding  prin- 
ciple and  has,  therefore,  increasingly  come  to  float  upon  the 
tide  of  mere  opinion,  without  standards,  without  purpose  and 
without  insight."  Any  one  familiar  with  recent  educational 
history  will  bear  out  the  truth  of  this  statement. 

Hence  the  writer  ventures  to  think  that  The  Science  of 
Education  by  the  late  Dr.  Otto  Willmann,  now  made  acces- 
sible to  English  readers,  has  a  mission  for  our  day  and  our 
country,  since  it  offers  those  guiding  principles  of  which 
American  education  stands  in  sore  need.  Dr.  Willmann  acts 
on  the  principle  that  the  history  of  education  must  be  our 
guide  in  educational  matters.  Whatever  has  stood  the  test  of 
the  ages,  bids  fair  to  prove  of  value  in  the  future  also.  The 
present  volume  undertakes  to  ascertain  from  the  history  of 
education,  what  is  the  basis  of  our  culture  and  civilization 
and  what  must,  consequently,  ever  remain  the  essence  of  our 
courses  of  study.  This  volume  is  probably  the  best  defence 
extant  of  what  may  be  called  the  uars  educandi  perennis." 

But  Dr.  Willmann  is  not  a  blind  worshipper  of  past  glory. 
He  is  fully  alive  to  the  achievements  of  modern  educationists, 


VI  PREFACE. 

especially  of  Herbart;  but  while  adopting  all  that  is  of  prac- 
tical value  in  his  pedagogy,  he  is  at  pains  to  correct  Herbart's 
mistakes  in  metaphysics  and  psychology.  This  phase  of  the 
work  will  appear  in  detail  in  the  second  volume  which  is  now 
in  the  press. 

What  gives  a  particular  value  to  the  present  work  is  the 
broad  vision  of  the  author.  Dr.  Willmann  does  not  ininimi/e 
the  importance  of  education;  yet  with  his  philosophical  mind 
he  realizes  that  the  school  is  but  one  of  the  forces  that  are  en- 
gaged in  the  momentous  task  of  social  reconstruction.  Hence 
he  treats  the  subject  of  education  in  its  sociological  aspects 
and  traces  the  interdependence  between  the  school  and  other 
social  factors.  This  broad  view  of  the  field  is  needed  most 
urgently  to-day  to  prevent  our  educational  leaders  from  draw- 
ing conclusions  that  are  based  on  narrow  professional  grounds. 

The  Science  of  Education  is  considered  a  pedagogical  classic 
in  Europe.  It  has  even  been  called  the  greatest  achievement 
of  modern  pedagogy,  and  competent  authorities  do  not  hesitate 
to  declare  that  the  author  is  the  greatest  educationist  of  our 
time.  The  present  work  has  given  rise  to  a  school  of  educa- 
tional writers,  and  its  principles  are  consistently  developed 
and  illustrated  in  Professor  Roloff's  "Lexikon  der  Padagogik" 
(five  vols.,  Herder,  1913-1917).  The  Society  of  Christian  Ped- 
agogy has  undertaken  to  spread  the  teachings  of  Dr.  Will- 
mann among  all  classes  of  teachers.  Several  educational  peri- 
odicals serve  the  same  purpose.  Catholics  and  Protestants 
are  one  in  paying  tribute  to  Dr.  Willmann's  genius,  and  thus 
it  is  not  surprising  that  his  Science  of  Education  has  exerted  a 
profound  influence  on  the  development  of  educational  thought 
in  Europe.  The  wo'rk  has  been  translated  into  Dutch,  and  a 
Spanish  version  is  in  course  of  preparation.  May  we  not,  then, 


PREFACE.  VII 

hope  that  the  book  in  its  English  dress  will  not  only  assist 
our  educators  to  solve  the  problems  now  confronting  them  on 
all  sides,  but  that  it  will  also  prove. to  them  an  inspiration 
and  a  guide  in  their  work? 

The  translator  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  late  Rev. 
I  )r.  Thomas  E.  Shields,  of  the  Catholic  University  of  America, 
for  reading  the  entire  manuscript  and  for  suggesting  a  wide 
variety  of  changes.  He  is  likewise  indebted  to  Mr.  Arthur 
Preuss,  Editor  of  the  "Fortnightly  Review,"  for  his  scholarly 
revision  of  the  Introduction.  Valuable  assistance  was  also 
received  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Patrick  J.  McCormick,  Editor  of 
the  "Catholic  Educational  Review,"  the  Rev.  Clarence  Tschip- 
pert,  0.  M.  Cap.,  and  other  confreres.  To  all  these  friends  the 
translator  begs  herewith  to  express  his  grateful  appreciation 
of  their  many  kindnesses. 

HERMAN,  PA.,  Sept.  1,  1921. 

F.  M.  K. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 
I. 

PAGE 

1.  Analogy  between  society  and  the  organic  body.  —  2.  The  analogy  ap- 
plied to  social  reconstruction. — 3.  The  acts  of  social  reconstruction; 
reproduction  and  heredity;  care  of  the  young.  — 4.  Spontaneous  assimi- 
lation of  the  young;  hereditary  transmission  of  property.  —  5.  Teach- 
ing and  discipline. —  6.  The  acts  of  social  reconstruction  in  their  re- 
lation to  the  totality  of  social  functions.  —  7.  The  acts  of  social  re- 
construction as  embodied  in  moral  education.  —  8.  Import  of  moral 
education. — 9.  Intellectual  education.— 10.  Comparison  of  moral  and 
intellectual  education 1—19 

II. 

1.  Can  pedagogy  and  didactics  be  treated  scientifically?  —  2.  Pedagogy 
should  embrace  the  collective  phenomena  of  the  social  world  and 
should  be  treated  in  its  social  aspects  as  was  done  by  the  ancients 
and  the  Didacticians  of  the  17th  century.  —  3.  Modern  political 
science  deals  with  education:  the  system  of  Lorenz  von  Stein.  — 
4.  The  individualistic  views  of  Locke,  Rousseau,  and  Herbart.  The 
science  of  education  in  England.  —  5.  Defects  of  the  individualistic 
view. — 6.  The  problem  of  education  has,  like  all  moral  problems, 
two  sides.  Views  of  Plato  and  Herbart.  —  7.  How  to  widen  the 
scope  of  the  science  of  education:  its  relation  to  ethnology  and  psy- 
chology, 8.  to  moral  statistics,  and  9.  sociology.  Limitations  of  the 
analogy  between  society  and  the  animal  organism 20—40 

III. 

1.  The  historical  view  of  education  ignored  by  educational  reformers. — 
2.  Contradictory  views  of  Pestalozzi  and  Herbart.  Reaction  from 
their  extreme  position.  — 3.  The  importance  of  history  for  pedagogy 
and  didactics.  History  of  the  science  of  education  and  of  educational 
systems.  —  4.  Tracing  existing  educations  and  customs  to  their  be- 
ginnings. The  comparative  study  of  historical  phenomena.  —  5.  The 
problem  of  combining  the  historical  and  the  philosophical  view  re- 
curs in  all  moral  sciences.  The  historical  method  does  not  affect 
the  normative  character  of  a  science.  Theoretical  and  practical  ped- 
agogy. —  6.  Education  in  its  relation  to  history.  Education  as  a 
motor  force  in  historical  movements.  —  7.  History  as  co-operating 
with  education.  The  analogy  between  the  development  of  the  race 

and  the  development  of  the  individual 40 — 56 

IX 


X  CONTENTS. 

IV. 

PAGE 

1.  Mutual  relationship  between  pedagogy  and  Didaktik.  Views  of  the 
old  Didacticians  and  of  modern  economists.— 2.  Herbart. —  3.  Schleier- 
macher.  —  4.  Different  scope  of  pedagogy  and  Didaktik.  Historical 
and  philosophical  differences  between  moral  and  intellectual  educa- 
tion. —  5.  Relation  between  Didaktik  and  the  individual  sciences. 
Difficulties  resulting  from  the  character  of  a  science  of  general  edu- 
cation. —  6.  These  difficulties  can  not  be  solved  by  specialization. 
Correcting  some  misconceptions  of  the  science  of  education. — 7.  The 
science  of  education  is  not  the  only  science  that  touches  upon  fields 
belonging  to  several  sciences. — 8.  Outline  of  the  plan  to  be  followed 
in  treating  the  science  of  education 56— 74 


PART  I. 
THE  HISTORICAL  TYPES  OF  EDUCATION. 

I. 

EDUCATION  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  CULTURE,  CIVILIZATION,  AND 
MORAL  REFINEMENT. 


Chapter  I. 

I'AOE 

Civilization— Culture;  Moral  Refinement — Education 77 

1.  Civilization  compared  with  culture.  2.  Moral  refinement  contrasted 
with  education. 

Chapter  II. 

Interdependence  of  Education  and  Culture 79 

1.  Education  and  culture  are  interdependent.  2.  Variations  in  educa- 
tion resulting  from  differences  in  the  source  and  the  later  devel- 
opment of  a  nation's  culture.  3.  Education  is  deeply  influenced 
by  the  stage  of  a  nation's  civilization.  4.  It  is  also  influenced  by 
the  stage  of  its  moral  refinement.  Education  and  wisdom. 

Chapter  III. 

Education  and  the  Stages  of  Culture 84 

1.  No  real  education  among  primitive  peoples.  2.  The  art  of  writing 
essential  to  education.  3.  The  civilized  peoples  of  the  East  pos- 
sess true  education. 


CONTENTS.  XI 

II. 

ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 
Chapter  IV. 

I'AOE 

India 90 

1.  The  Vedas.  2.  Vedic  studies:  grammar  and  the  art  of  language. 
3.  Mathematics.  4.  Teaching-  methods.  Elementary  Instruction. 
5.  Appreciation  of  education. 

Chapter  V. 

Egypt 97 

1.  The  Hermetic  Books.  2.  The  art  of  writing.  3.  Mathematics. 
Music  and  physical  culture.  4.  The  temple  schools.  Character  of 
the  educational  system  of  ancient  Egypt. 

Chapter  VI. 

The  Nations  Employing  Cuneiform  Writing 103 

1.  Education  among  the  Semitic  peoples.  Chaldean  education.  2.  Per- 
sian education. 

Chapter  VII. 

The  Hebrews 106 

1.  Unique  position  of  the  Hebrews.  High  regard  for  learning.  2.  Early 
beginnings  of  a  school  system.  Higher  education  after  the  Exile. 
3.  Study  of  Hebrew.  The  Jews  in  the  later  history  of  education. 

Chapter  VIII. 

China Ill 

1.  Canonical  books  and  studies.  2.  Higher  studies.  Elementary  schools. 
Encyclopedias  and  newspapers.  3.  State  support  of  the  schools. 
The  system  of  examinations.  Chinese  view  of  education.  Estimate 
of  Chinese  education. 

III. 

GREEK  EDUCATION. 

Chapter  IX. 

The  Content  of  Greek  Education 118 

1.  The  spirit  of  Greece  is  opposed  to,  but  influenced  by,  the  oriental 
spirit.  Pre-Homeric  theology  contains  the  lirst  sources  of  Greek 
education.  2.  Homer  is  the  standard  author.  3.  Liberal  educa- 
tion; language  and  literature,  music,  and  gymnastics.  Correlation 
of  school  and  life.  4.  Philosophy  is  opposed  to  Homer.  5.  The 
courses  of  study  outlined  by  Pythagoras  and  Plato.  6.  The  influ- 
ence of  philosophy  upon  general  education.  The  Sophists.  Isoc- 
rates.  7.  The  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts  comprises  both 
cultural  and  scientific  subjects,  and  is  supplemented  by  popular 
literature  and  miscellaneous  studies.  Philosophy  is  the  capstone 
of  general  education. 


XII  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  X. 

The  Ethos  of  Greek  Education 134 

1.  Liberal  education  versus  vocational  training.  2.  Education  is  an 
ornament,  and  part  and  parcel  of  one's  personality.  Education  is 
to  be  acquired  for  its  own  sake.  The  fullness  and  many-sidedness 
of  Greek  education  and  the  dangers  resulting  therefrom.  3.  The 
moral  and  religious  factors  inherent  in  education.  The  socio- 
ethical  conception  of  education.  4.  The  Greeks  discussed  educa- 
tional problems.  Educational  literature. 

Chapter  XI. 

The  Greek  School  System 141 

1.  Elementary  schools.  State  laws  and  State  support.  Gymnasiums. 
2.  Philosophy  schools.  Grammar  and  rhetoric  schools.  Voca- 
tional training.  3.  Higher  educational  institutions  of  the  Alexan- 
drian Age. 


IV. 
ROMAN  EDUCATION.      ' 

Chapter  XII. 

The  Content  of  Roman  Education 147 

1.  The  theological  element  in  Roman  education.  Roman  education  was 
deeply  influenced  by  Greek  education.  The  study  of  Greek.  2.  The 
study  of  the  mother-tongue.  Importance  of  grammar  and  rhetoric. 
3.  Textbooks  and  school  authors.  Comedies,  orations,  and  recitations 
as  educational  instruments.  4.  Cato's  views  on  educational  mate- 
rials. The  mathematical  element  in  Roman  education.  Varro's 
course  of  study.  5.  Roman  encyclopedias.  6.  Philosophy.  General 
view  of  the  content  of  Roman  education. 

Chapter  XIII. 

The  Ethos  of  Roman  Education 157 

1.  Oratory  and  jurisprudence  are  practical  aims  of  the  liberal  educa- 
tion. Education  and  the  demands  of  practical  life.  2.  Practical 
ability  and  theoretical  knowledge.  The  tendency  toward  many- 
sidedness.  3.  The  moral  viewpoint.  The  cosmopolitan  tendency 
of  Roman  education. 

Chapter  XIV. 

The  Roman  School  System 162 

1.  Beginnings  of  the  School  System.  School  regulations  with  regard 
to  the  introduction  of  Greek  education.  2.  Grammar  and  rhetoric 
schools.  3.  Great  number  of  schools.  A  system  of  State  schools 
organized  by  the  Caesars. 


CONTENTS.  XIII 

V. 
CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

Chapter  XV. 

PAGE 

The  Aims  of  Christian  Education 170 

1.  The  influence  of  Christianity  on  education.  The  religious  element. 
The  distinction  between  liberal  and  illiberal  arts-  becomes  less 
marked.  2.  The  life  of  the  spirit  and  spiritual  living-.  The  aesthet- 
ical  element.  3.  The  tendency  toward  totality  rather  than  toward 
the  diversity  of  the  parts.  The  objectivity  of  the  content  of  edu- 
cation. Love  of  fame  and  glory  is  no  longer  the  principal  con- 
sideration. 

Chapter  XVI. 

The  Content  of  Early  Christian  Education : > 177 

1.  The  difficulty  of  assimilating  the  content  of  ancient  education.  Chris- 
tianizing the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  and  the  sciences  dealing 
with  these  languages.  2.  Correlating  the  mathematical  sciences  as 
well  as  philology,  history,  and  3.  philosophy  with  the  Christian 
content.  4.  The  attitude  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  towards 
the  problem  of  education.  5.  St.  Basil,  St.  Gregory  of  Nazianzus, 
and  St.  Chrysostom.  6.  The  Latin  Fathers,  especially  St.  Jerome. 
7.  The  course  of  study  outlined  in  St.  Augustine's  De  Doctrina 
Christiana.  8.  The  final  selection  from  the  content  of  ancient 
education. 

Chapter  XVII. 

The  Early  Christian  School  System , . . .  191 

1.  The  Christian  instruction  of  the  young  and  elementary  schools. 
2.  Higher  education.  3.  Bishops'  schools.  Benedictine  schools. 
4.  Character  of  the  early  Christian  school  system. 

VI. 

MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

Chapter  XVIII. 

The  School  System  of  the  Middle  Ages 196 

1.  The  Middle  Ages  are  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  and  represent  the 
youth  of  the  modern  nations.  2.  The  continuation  of  the  early 
Christian  school  system:  the  Benedictine  school  system.  3.  The 
teaching  activity  of  the  new  Orders  and  Congregations.  4.  Cath- 
edral schools  and  parish  schools.  5.  Lay  schools.  Chivalric  educa- 
cation.  t>.  Guild  schools.  City  schools.  7.  Universities.  8.  Colleges. 

Chapter  XIX. 

The  Content  of  Medieval  Education 213 

1.  The  seven  liberal  arts.  The  Quadrivium.  2.  The  Trivium  in  the 
pre-Scholastic  period.  The  dialectic  of  the  Scholastic  period.  The 
Humanistic  movement  in  opposition  to  the  Schoolmen.  3.  History. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

1'AOE 

4.  Natural  history.  5.  The  encyclopedists.  Rhabanus.  Herrad. 
Hugh  of  St.  Victor,  fi.  Vincent  of  Beauvais.  Brunetto.  Dante. 
7.  Grammar.  Greek.  Hebrew.  8.  Arabic.  The  Moslem  school  sys- 
tem and  its  relation  to  the  Christian  school  system.  9.  National  ele- 
ments in  medieval  education. 

Chapter  XX. 

The  Ethos  of  Medieval  Education 234 

1.  Christian  perfection  is  the  end  and  aim  of  education.  The  writings 
of  the  great  masters  are  rarely  used  in  the  schools,  but  their 
authority  holds  sway  nevertheless.  Thomas  Aquinas  on  self- 
activity.  2.  The  relation  of  teacher  and  pupil.  3.  Character  of 
chivalric  education.  Defects  of  medieval  education. 


VII. 
THE  RENAISSANCE. 

Chapter  XXI. 

General  View  of  Renaissance  Education 240 

1.  Medieval  and  modern  views  of  classical  antiquity.  Humanism.  Re- 
naissance. 2.  Roman  Education  as  the  model.  Importance  of  the 
art  of  language.  3.  The  cosmopolitan  tendency  of  Humanism.  Love 
of  fame.  4.  Relationship  between  the  new  principle  and  Chris- 
tianity. 5.  Protestant  Attitude.  0.  Catholic  Attitude.  Paganism 
in  education. 

Chapter  XXII. 

The  Content  of  Renaissance  Education 250 

1.  Philology.  Latin.  2.  Greek.  Hebrew.  3.  Trivium.  Ramus'  reform 
of  logic.  Quadrivium.  Philosophy.  4.  Encyclopedias.  Morhof. 
Freigius..  Comenius.  Becher.  5.  Verbalism  and  realism.  6.  Modern 
educational  elements.  Study  of  the  vernacular.  Accomplishments 
of  the  gentleman.  Doubts  about  the  superiority  of  classical  an- 
tiquity. 

Chapter  XXIII. 

The  Educational  Institutions  of  the  Renaissance 2(>5 

1.  Humanistic  circles  and  societies.  Academies.  2.  The  classics  are 
introduced  into  the  universities,  and  private  and  public  schools. 
The  Protestant  school  system.  3.  The  Catholic  school  system. 
4.  New  schools.  5.  Influence  of  the  State »on  the  school  system. 

Chapter  XXIV. 

The  Renaissance  in  the  Different  Countries 274 

1.  Italian  Humanism  is  a  vital  element.  2.  French  Humanism  and  its 
influence  on  the  character  of  the  French.  3.  English  Humanism 
and  the  analogy  between  ancient  and  English  education.  4.  German 
Humanism  and  its  fruits. 


CONTENTS.  XV 

VIII. 

THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

Chapter  XXV. 

PAGK 

The  Character  of  the  Enlightenment 282 

1.  Enlightenment  in  ancient  education.  2.  The  Enlightenment  of  the 
18th  century  as  a  general  principle.  The  attitude  of  the  Enlight- 
enment towards  religion,  society,  and  history.  Individualism  and 
intellectualism  of  the  Enlightenment.  3.  The  Enlightenment  in 
England,  France,  and  Germany.  Attitude  towards  education. 

Chapter  XXVI. 

The  Content  of  the, Education  of  the  Enlightenment 287 

1.  The  basic  principle  of  the  Enlightenment.  The  theological  element 
of  education.  2.  The  ancient  classics.  Criticism  of  classical  antiq- 
uity. 3.  The  encyclopedic  tendency  of  the  18th  century.  Gesner. 
Bayle.  The  Encyclopedic.  Popular  encyclopedias.  The  Elementary 
Book.  4.  Popular  treatment  of  philosophy.  5.  Popular  history. 
6.  Polite  literature.  Popular  science. 

.Chapter  XXVII. 

The  School  Reform  of  the  18th  Century 300 

1.  The  conservative  attitude  of  the  English.  2.  Education  in  France. 
Holland.  La  Chalotais.  3.  Mirabeau.  Talleyrand,  Condorcet,  Le- 
pelletier.  The  Napoleonic  Universite.  4.  Educational  reforms  in 
Latin  Europe  as  well  as  in  Poland  and  Russia.  5.  Important  fac- 
tors in  the  reform  of  the  German  school  system.  Philanthrop- 
inism.  6.  State  reform  of  the  schools.  Pietism  and  the  reform  of 
the  Prussian  school  system.  The  reform  of  the  Austrian  school 
system.  7.  The  smaller  states.  The  elementary  school.  Vocational 
schools.  The  universities. 


IX. 

MODERN  EDUCATION. 

Chapter  XXVIII. 

The  Character  of  Modern  Education 315 

1.  Points  of  contact  between  the  education  of  to-day  and  the  educa- 
tion of  the  Enlightenment.  2.  The  renaissance  of  historical,  na- 
tional, and  Christian  elements.  Nationalism  versus  cosmopolitan- 
ism. 3.  The  State  is  no  longer  regarded  as  omnipotent.  The 
historical  conception  of  education.  4.  Modern  eclecticism.  General 
education  versus  vocational  training.  Modern  education  is  a  com- 
promise. The  mechanistic  conception. 


XVI  CONTENTS. 


Chapter  XXIX. 

I'AG  K 

The  Content  of  Modern  Education 324 

1.  The  modern  conception  of  philology.  Modern  philology  as  a  school 
subject.  2.  Prominence  of  Greek.  Modern  languages.  Compara- 
tive philology.  Modern  education  is  neglectful  of  the  art  of  lan- 
guage. 3.  Modern  philosophy  has  influenced  education  only  indi- 
rectly. Modern  schools  neglect  the  study  of  philosophy.  4.  Theol- 
ogy. Theological  pedagogy.  5.  The  historical  sciences.  Geography. 
(5.  Natural  sciences.  Mathematics.  The  encyclopedic  character  of 
modern  education. 

Chapter  XXX. 

The  Modern  School  System 337 

1.  The  elementary  school  system.  Training  of  the  teacher.  2.  Scope 
of  the  gymnasium,  Latin  schools  of  England.  Catholic  secondary 
schools.  The  Prussian  gymnasium.  3.  Secondary  schools  in  Bavaria, 
( Austria,  and  France.  4.  The  Realschule.  Vocational  schools.  Female 
academies.  5.  University  education.  6.  Strength  and  weakness  of 
modern  education. 
Index..  353 


j.  - 

ipiiiFip  "nfr™i|""|j.!, 


INTRODUCTION. 


I. 


"A /TAN  has  ever  realized  the  need  of  illustrating  the  ab- 
stract  by  the  concrete  and  of  explaining  moral  events 
by  analogous  physical  occurrences.  An  analogy  that  is  very  fruit- 
ful of  thought  is  the  comparison  of  human  society  with  the  living 
body.  The  author  of  the  Rig-Veda  has  this  comparison  in  mind 
when  he  tells  us  that  not  only  the  elements  and  the  heavenly  bod- 
ies, but  also  the  caste^  of  Indian  society  spring  from  the  body  of 
the  god  Purusha:  the  Brahman,  from  his  mouth;  the  Kshatriya, 
from  his  arms;  the  Vaisya,  from  his  thighs;  and  the  Sudra, 
from  his  feet.1  By  means  of  the  well-known  fable  of  the  dfe- 
pute  between  the  stomach  and  the  hands,  Menenius  Agrippa  is 
alleged  to  have  persuaded  the  plebeians  to  return  from  Mons 
Sacer  to  Rome."  A  further  and  more  frequently  employed  ana- 
logy has  been  found  to  exist  between  the  organism  and  the 
State:  the  government  has  been  compared  to  the  head;  and  the 
subjects,  to  the  members  of  the  body.  The  Latin  language, 
especially,  has  led  the  way  for  the  modern  languages  to  develop 
this  metaphor.  The  Romans  were  familiar  with  such  turns  of 
expression  as  head  and  body  of  the  State,  of  the  people,  of  the 
army;  just  as  we  to-day  speak  of  the  head,  body,  and  members 
to  denote  different  .parts  of  a  society.  Plutarch  draws  a  com- 
parison between  the  living  organism  and  the  State,  the  family, 
and  the  tribe,  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  how  all  these,  in 

1  Rig- Veda  X,  90. 

2  Liv.  II,  32;  for  a  more  detailed  account,  see  Dionys.  Hal    VI,  86. 


INTRODUCTION 


the  course  of  the  ages,  preserve  their  nature;  and  consequently 
that  the  merit  as  well  as  the  guilt  of  the  forbears  may  be  in- 
herited by  their  descendants.1  Seneca  goes  still  further  in  con- 
sidering the  whole  human  race  as  one  social  organism,  of  which 
the  individual  men,  united  by  the  bonds  of  nature  and  by  their 
common  needs  and  duties,  are  the  members.2 

Just  as  it  was  left  to  Christianity  to  grasp  the  full  meaning 
of  the  unity  and  solidarity  of  the  human  race,  so  has  the  Christ- 
ian religion  also  raised  the  figurative  expression  of  this  union 
to  a  higher  plane.  The  penetrating  mind  of  St.  Paul  saw  in 
the  living  body  a  symbol  of  the  unity  existing  between  all  men 
baptized  in  Christ  and  of  the  further  unity  that  obtains  in  the 
distribution  of  gifts,  offices,  and  works.  This  common  bond 
made  distinctions  of  race  and  caste  impossible:  "For  in  one 
Spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one  body,  whether  Jews  or 
Gentiles,  whether  bond  or  free;  and  in  one  common  Spirit  have 
we  all  been  made  to  drink;"  the  one  common  vocation  of  all 
is  "to  grow  up  in  Him  who  is  the  head,  even  Christ,  from  whom 
the  whole  body  being  compacted  and  fitly  joined  together 
maketh  increase;"  at  the  same  time,  however,  Christ  has  com- 
mitted to  each  member  of  the  body  a  special  function,  "for  as 
in  one  body  we  have  members,  but  all  the  members  have  not 
the  same  office:  so  we,  being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and 
every  one  members  of  one  another,  and  having  different  gifts, 
according  to  the  grace  that  is  given  us."3  This  teaching  has 
served  Christian  theology  as  the  basis  for  developing  the  doc- 
trine of  the  mystical  body  of  Christ.  The  same  idea  underlies 
the  relations  existing  between  the  mother  church  and  her  daugh- 
ter churches,  between  the  visible  head  of  the  Church  and  the 
faithful,  between  the  different  offices  in  religious  communities, 


etc.4 


Plato  introduced  this  biological  simile  into  the  political  sci- 
ences. He  uses  it  to  prove  that  citizens  must  have  many  inter- 
ests in  common:  the  State  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  an  object 
of  personal  concern  to  each  individual;  its  common  weal  and 
woe  should  be  felt  by  all  just  as  keenly  as  the  members  of  a 
body  share  pleasure  and  pain.0  The  keynote  of  Plato's  Repub- 
lic is  that  the  constitution  of  the  whole  State,  no  less  than  the 

1  Plut.  De  sera  numinis  vindicta,  c.  15.     (Moralia,  ed.  Duebner,  t.  I,  p.  676.) 

2  Sen.  Ep.  95,  52. 

3  I.  Cor.  XII,  12-27;  Eph.  IV,  11-16;  Rom.  XII,  4-6  ff. 

4  Tert.  De  virg.  velandis,  c.  I,  and  elsewhere. 

5  Plato,  Rep.  V,  p.  462  and  464,  Steph. 


INTRODUCTION 


well-being  of  the  individual,  must  rest  on  the  concerted  action 
of  many  factors,  each  component  part  of  the  State  as  well  as  of 
the  body  following  the  rule,  "Every  one  shall  perform  his  proper 
duties."  But  in  developing  this  idea,  Plato  employed  the 'har- 
mony of  the  faculties  (not  of  the  body  but  of  the  soul)  as  pic- 
turing the  unity  that  must  prevail  among  the  different  forces 
at  work  in  the  State.  Aristotle  compares  the  parts  composing 
human  society  to  the  different  organs  of  the  animal  body,  and 
so  obtains  his  principle  for  distinguishing  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment, which  can  be  divided  (as  in  the  animal  kingdom  the  com- 
binations of  the  variously  shaped  physical  organs  differentiate 
the  classes)  in  accordance  with  the  union  they  establish  be- 
tween the  different  classes  of  the  population.1  Aristotle,  how- 
ever, attaches,  on  the  whole,  less  weight  to  this  comparison,  in 
keeping  with  his  usual  practice  not  to  illustrate  human  life  by 
pictures  drawn  from  the  physical  world;  but,  instead,  to  use 
moral  examples  to  elucidate  the  doings  of  the  lower  order.2 

With  Hobbes,  the  comparison  is  more  than  a  mere  analogy, 
for  he  demands  that  the  body  of  the  State  be  made  the  subject 
of  study,  not  only  in  the  political  sciences,  but  also  in  ethics, 
the  latter  being,  in  his  opinion,  a  part  of  the  former;  but  since 
the  body  of  the  State  is  thus  made  an  object  of  inquiry  on  a  par 
with  the  natural  bodies  of  the  physical  sciences,  the  whole  phi- 
losophy of  Hobbes  is  reduced  to  somatology.  According  to 
Hobbes,  the  sovereign  of  the  State,  which  is  the  corpus  politi- 
cum,  represents  the  life  principle,  and  is  consequently  not  mere- 
ly the  head,  but  the  soul,  of  the  body.  But  one  step  more  was 
needed  to  consider  the  organs  of  this  body  as  mechanical  instru- 
ments and  the  whole  organism  as  a  machine,  and,  by  not  draw- 
ing this  conclusion,  Hobbes  failed  to  -perceive  the  practical  re- 
sults of  his  theory. 

2.  Modern  sociology  has  been  enabled  by  the  new  discover- 
ies made  in  the  natural  sciences  to  disclose  new  points  of  simi- 
larity in  the  old  comparison,  and  has  thus  been  enriched  by 
important  and  novel  concepts.  What  modern  biology  has  bor- 
rowed from  sociology  in  concepts  and  technical  terms  (e.  g.,  di- 
vision of  labor,  economy  of  organic  life,  colony  of  cells,  etc.)  it 
has  compensated  for  in  ideas  and  expressions,  of  which  some 
possess  no  more  than  the  charm  of  novelty,  while  others  are  of 


1  Arist.  Pol.  IV,  3,  p.  1290  Bekk. 

2  Cf.  Eucken,    Ueber  Bilder  und  Gleichnisse  in  der  Philosophic,    Leipzig,   1880 
p.  14. 


INTRODUCTION 


permanent  value.  The  light  thrown  upon  biological  processes 
has  increased  the  points  of  contact  between  social  and  organic 
life  by  revealing  hitherto  unknown  analogies.  The  philosophers 
of  a  former  day  saw  in  the  organism  and  in  society  only  the  one 
whole,  "consisting  of  parts,  differing  in  function,  so  united  as 
to  be  conjointly  responsible  for  self-preservation  and  able  to 
produce  harmoniously  the  collective  effects."  But  after  natural 
philosophy  had  analyzed  the  organic  body,  a  further  analogy, 
fruitful  of  new  concepts,  was  discovered:  it  was  recognized  that 
there  is  in  the  organism  not  merely  one  system,  but  that  the 
whole  is  based  on  the  union  of  a  variety  of  interconnected  sys- 
tems—bones, muscles,  blood-vessels,  nerves — and  that,  simi- 
larly, men  have  established  the  State,  not  merely  by  forming 
one  union,  but  by  uniting  a  number  of  diverse  unions  and  thus 
producing  a  complex  social  woof,  which  includes  the  national 
union,  the  political  confederation,  the  texture  of  all  classes  and 
all  professions,  community  of  religion,  and  the  innumerable  as- 
sociations that  owe  their  being  to  the  respective  communities 
of  interests,  be  they  economic,  social,  intellectual,  or  otherwise. 
To  bring  out  these  facts,  however,  such  terms  as  people,  nation, 
confederation,  and  even  society  are  utterly  inadequate,  since 
they  denote  only  different  modes  of  union,  not  the  whole  com- 
plex; and  only  the  terms  borrowed  from  biology,  social  body  or 
social  organism^  convey  fully  this  complex  system. 

A  deeper  study  of  the  organic  body  has  disclosed  a  further 
point  of  agreement  between  organic  and  social  life.  The  social 
and  the  animal  body  have  in  common  a  continual  acquisition 
and  a  continual  discharge  of  their  constituent  elements.  The 
living  organism  discharges  matter,  whose  place  it  fills  with  other 
elements,  and  thus  is  ceaselessly  engaged  in  building  up  and 
tearing  down.  Human  society  with  its  births  and 'deaths  shows 
an  analogous  increase  and  decrease;  it,  too,  continually  renews 
itself;  and,  as  the  animal  organism  remains,  despite  the  changes 
affecting  its  component  elements,  and  as  it  assimilates  and 
elaborates  the  new  matter  before  it  is  distributed  to  the  various 
systems  of  which  the  whole  is  composed,  so  the  social  body  also 
preserves  its  identity  while  new  individuals  are  arriving  and  the 
old  are  departing;  and  it  is  likewise  one  of  its  vital  functions  to 
assimilate  and  incorporate  the  incoming  elements  in  order  there- 
by to  insure  the  continuity  of  its  forces. 

This  social  reconstruction  appears  generally  not  as  one  whole, 
concerted  process.  The  observer  is  almost  invariably  too  much 
taken  up  with  some  particular  facts,  subservient  to  the  whole, 


INTRODUCTION 


and  this  prevents  him  from  obtaining  a  complete  view  of  the 
phenomena  that  are  so  vast  and  embrace  such  diverse  and  sub- 
ordinate phases.  Indeed,  it  is  only  the  comparison  drawn  from 
organic  nature  that  leads  one  to  perceive  the  unity  of  the  whole 
process.  The  value  of  this  analogy  is  not  impaired  by  the  fact 
that  the  resemblances  are  less  important  than  the  differences, 
and  that  one  must  ever  be  on  guard  lest  the  social  phenomena 
receive  through  the  comparison  with  the  physical  order  a  for- 
eign and  naturalistic  coloring.  We  should  never  forget  that  the 
processes  brought  about  in  the  animal  body  by  the  change  of 
organic  matter  are  but  natural  and  physical;  whereas  the  re- 
construction of  human  society,  while  including  physical  occur- 
rences, tends  rather  towards  psychical  processes  and  psychical 
actions,  which  finally  result  in  conscious  and  free  actions,  and 
therefore  transcend  all  mechanism,  whether  physical  or  psychical. 
In  every  action  and  in  every  phase  of  social  reconstruction  we 
discern  the  influence  of  historical  development,  a  trait  that  is 
common  to  all  human  activity. 

3.  The  first  step  in  the  process  of  social  reconstruction  is 
to  engender  the  individuals  that  are  to  receive  the  effects  of  the 
assimilating  forces,  and  this  very  first  act,  a  reproduction,  be- 
longs alike  to  the  natural,  the  ethical,  and  the  historical  order. 
All  classes  of  living  beings  renew  themselves  by  reproduction. 
The  natural  instinct  of  the  individual  animal  to  produce  beings 
of  its  own  kind  is,  beside  that  of  self-preservation,  the  strongest 
motor  force  in  all  animal  activity.  The  properties  and  attri- 
butes of  the  parents  are  inherited  by  the  young,  and  so  nature 
conserves  the  types  of  life  and  preserves  the  successive  gener- 
ations from  material  change.  Man  can  purify  and  ennoble  by 
higher  motives  the  primitive  instinct  of  propagation;  he  can 
control  it  by  the  moral  law  and  convert  the  sexual  union  into 
the  family  bond,  which  is  the  protoplasm  of  all  social  organi- 
zation. Thus  a  relationship  is  established  between  the  function 
of  reproduction  and  the  vital  activities  of  the  social  body,  which 
is  so  intimate  that  the  latter  can,  in  a  certain  sense,  be  held 
responsible  for  the  former.  Nationality,  form  of  government, 
morality,  education,  wealth,  historical  events,  and  similar  fac- 
tors influence  not  only  the  birth-rate,  but  likewise  the  type, 
qualities,  and  faculties  of  the  children.  Even  with  the  brutes, 
it  is  not  only  the  congenital  characters,  /.  £.,  those  inherited 
from  ancestors,  but  also  those  acquired  by  the  individual  that 
pass  to  the  young.  The  same  is  true,  only  in  much  greater  di- 
versity, of  the  human  race,  for  the  accomplishments  and  ac- 


INTRODUCTION 


quired  habits  of  parents  can  be  transmitted  to  their  children. 

<!/      Not  only  physical  qualities,  but  properties  of  the  mind  and  such 

as  are  the  result  of  education  and  culture  are  handed  down  from 

generation  to  generation:  the  experiences  and  achievements  of 

.  -  .'    9  P  ,     .    '  .  ,, 

former  generations,  their  progress  or  retrogression,  are  all  trans- 
mitted to  their  descendants  as  so  many  dispositions  for  good 
or  bad:  "By  the  wonderful  power  of  the  seed  given  to  the  bodies 
of  men,  the  inherited  good  and  the  inherited  evil  pass  down  the 
stream  of  human  generations."1  The  children  receive  by  in- 
heritance the  national  type,  which,  though  it  is  not  yet  the  fixed 
nationality,  is,  undoubtedly,  the  basis  for  all  those  influences 
that  tend  to  create  the  national  spirit.  By  heredity  all  the 
types  are  transmitted  that  have  been  formed  by  the  living  con- 
ditions and  various  habits  of  the  forbears,  and  which  often  as- 
sert themselves  even  where  the  descendants  grow  up  in  an 
entirely  different  atmosphere.  The  fact  that  in  the  civilizing 
of  primitive  peoples,  several  generations  must  be  brought  under 
the  influence  of  culture  before  the  first  fruits  of  civilization  ap- 
pear, shows  how  the  third  and  fourth  generations  are  affected 
by  the  sum  total  of  the  influences  that  have  been  exerted  upon 
the  present  and  preceding  generations.2  The  caste  system  has 
demonstrated  that  intellectual  as  well  as  technical  attainments 
become,  as  it  were,  the  capital  of  the  successive  generations  who 
have  devoted  themselves  to  one  special  field  of  activity,  and 
thus  the  children  reap  the  fruits  of  the  labors  of  their  ancestors 
in  the  form  of  increased  efficiency.3  Thus  nature  transmits  by 
physical  inheritance  the  greatest  gifts  of  previous  civilization, 
and  the  physical  solidarity  of  mankind  assumes  a  historical 
character  long  before  any  psychic  influences  come  into  play. 

Animal  life  shows  another  instinct,  related  closely  to  the 
sexual  and,  like  it,  tending  to  preserve  the*  species:  namely,  the 
instinct  to  preserve,  nourish,  and  watch  over  the  young;  in  a 
word,  to  provide  them  with  the  necessaries  of  life.  In  man  as 
well  as  beast  the  manifestations  of  these  two  instincts  are  inti- 
mately connected,  as  can  readily  be  seen  from  the  employment 
of  identical,  or  at  least  similar,  terms  for  both  functions.  For 
example,  the  root  of  the  English  word  "educate"  is  the  Latin 
educare^  which  means  to  rear,  to  nourish,  to  bring  up;  the  term 
"parents,"  from  the  Latin  parentes^  seems  to  support  the  view 

1  Augustine,  De  civitate  Dei,  XXII,  24,  i. 

2  Th.  Waitz,  Anthropologie  der  Naturvolker,  I,  81. 

3  Ribot,  Heredity,  New  York,  1895,  pp.  364  ff. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

that  the  process  of  life-giving  is  continued  after  birth;  the  Latin 
terms  for  child,  proles  and  suboles^  are  both  derived  from  alere^ 
to  rear,  to  nourish,  to  bring  up;  Tuevoyovia  meant  to  the  Greek 
as  much  as  to  have,  *'.  e.,  to  beget  and  rear,  children.1  The  Ger- 
man words  zeugen  (to  beget),  ziehen,  aufziehen,  auferziehen  (to 
educate),  have  a  common  root,  and  the  two  meanings  are  brought 
out  in  Zucht  and  ziichten.  Aristotle  attributed  to  the  $vx*) 
OpeirTLKT/j,  the  nourishing  soul,  all  the  activity  of  reproduction;2 
the  primary  meaning  of  the  Spanish  criar  is  to  create,  to  give  birth 
to,  but  this  meaning  is  now  blended  with  "to  rear,  to  bring  up." 
An  old  view,  occurring  in  Hindu  and  Greek  literature,  has  it, 
that  the  child's  education  begins  during  its  embryonic  life,  and 
that  the  mother  is  only  the  nurse  of  even  the  unborn  child.3 
Yet,  notwithstanding  this  close  relation  between  reproduction 
and  education,  it  is  only  the  latter  that  can  establish  conscious 
relations  between  parent  and  chil(3.  In  the  animal  world,  the 
relations  between  parent  and  offspring,  though  very  close,  are 
of  brief  duration,  whereas  with  the  human  race  they  involve 
long  and  eventful  cohabitation.  The  long  period  of  utter  help- 
lessness has  rightly  been  considered  an  advantage  to  the  child 
because  it  renders  its  development  both  broad  and  deep;  and, 
by  necessitating  much  tender  and  loving  care,  it  improves  the 
character  of  the  parents.4  By  contrasting  the  development  of 
children  among  primitive  and  civilized  peoples,  it  has  been  dis- 
covered that  the  period  of  helplessness  and  infancy  lasts  the 
longer,  the  more  care  is  given  to  the  rearing  of  the  young;  and 
thus  the  greater  care  of  children  is  not  only  an  indispensable 
condition  for,  but  also  a  product  of  civilization  and  historical 
development.5  The  public  care  of  orphans,  which  we  find  even 
among  primitive  peoples,  represents  an  effort  made  by  society 
at  large.  This  effort,  though  determined  primarily  by  individual 
motives  and  means,  is  invariably  dependent  upon  social  factors, 
so  that  it  may  truly  be  said  that  the  methods  employed  in  edu- 

1  Cf.  I.  Tim.,  ii,  15. 

2  Aristotle,  de  an.,  II,  4,  2. 

3  Rig-Veda,  V,   78.  —  Aeschylus,  Eum.,  615. — Cf.  Lucas,    Traite  de  I'heredile 
naturelle,  II,  67  ff. 

4  Lucretius,  V,  1016,    considers    the  intercourse  between  parent  and  child  as 
tending   to    refine    the    nature   of   man    and    as   leading    him  to  adopt  principles 
like  the  following:  "Imbecillorum  esse  aequum  misererier omnium." — In  TheLuck 
of  Roaring  Camp,  Bret  Harte  relates  how  the  coarse  brutality  rampant  in  a  mining 
camp  slowly  gave  way  to  noble  impulses,    after   the   men    had   adopted  a  poor  or- 
phan.— George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner  treats  a  somewhat  similar  theme. 

5  Caspari,   Urgeschichte  der  Menschheit,  I,  108. 


8  INTRODUCTION 

i 

eating  the  children  of  a  nation  reflect  that  nation's  general  mo- 
rality, and  are  shaped  by  its  moral  and  religious  views  as  well 
as  by  its  social  and  political  institutions. 

4.  The  community  of  life  made  necessary  by  the  helplessness 
of  infants,  and  confirmed  by  higher  motives,  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  the  influence  exercised  by  the  souls  of  the  parents  on 
their  offspring  and  of  the  increasing  mental  and  moral  assimi- 
lation of  the  younger  to  the  older  generation.  These  beginnings 
of  assimilation  have  no  conscious  purpose  or  definite  end;  they 
are  not  so  much  activities  of  the  soul  as  natural  processes  by 
which  the  existing  physical  homogeneity  is  extended  into  the 
mental  and  moral  field.  Among  nations  of  the  savage  or  bar- 
barous stage,  where  the  influences  deliberately  brought  to  bear 
upon  youth  are  few,  the  .child  nevertheless  assumes  the  manners 
and  habits  of  its  parents,  adopts  their  language  and  customs, 
makes  their  interests  and  memories  its  own,  becomes,  in  fact, 
like  its  elders,  solely  by  virtue  of  the  involuntary  assimilation 
effected  by  the  mutual  intercourse  and  a  common  life.  Simi- 
larly, among  civilized  nations,  where  education  is  conscious  and 
carefully  mapped  out,  the  involuntary  influences  wil-1  not  fail 
to  prepare  for  the  formal  training;  they  will  assist  it,  and  fre- 
quently also  thwart  its  results.  The_-£n\drPJ!!P_en^ofthe  child 
will  have  its  sway,  and  all  that  comes  to  the  child  by  the  process 
of  nature  will  settle  upon  it,  as  though  it  were  a  precipitation 
from  the  surrounding  atmosphere,  and  must  consequently  be 
taken  into  account  as  the  broad  and  indispensable  basis  for  in- 
struction and  discipline.  Thus  is  the  mother-tongue  handed 
down  to,  and  acquired  by  the  children.  Its  very  name  signifies 
that  it  grows  out  of  the  intercourse  between  mother  and  child. 
This  is  an  important  step  in  mental  assimilation,  for  language 
is  not  a  mere  soulless  form,  unconnected  with  its  content,  but 
rather  a  rich  storehouse  of  thought.  The  words,  forms,  con- 
structions, and  inflections  of  a  language  contain  the  germs  of  a 
definite  conception  of  the  universe,1  which  is  transmitted  to  the 
young  along  with  language.  What  we  call  the  mother-tongue 
is  the  first  consciously  imparted  gift  of  one  generation  to  the 
next.  Speech  and  intercourse  are,  furthermore,  vehicles  for  the 
quick  and  natural  transmission  of  experiences,  memories,  views, 
and  evaluations,  and  this  process  of  transmission  grows  more 
effective  as  the  eye  corroborates  the  ear.  The  most  efficient 


1  W.  v.  Humboldt,    Die  Verschiedenheit  des  menschlichen  Sprachbaues,  38. — Cf. 
Adler,   Wilhelm  von  Humboldt' s  Lin%uistical  Studies,   New  York,  1866. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

force  of  assimilation  in  the  sphere  of  conduct  is  example.  Arts 
and  customs,  too,  are  to  a  great  extent  transmitted  without 
special  effort  by  the  spontaneous  tendency  of  the  human  mind 
to  imitate  and  copy;  it  is  thus  that  many  interests,  desires,  in- 
clinations, and  determinations  of  the  will  are  passed  on  from 
generation  to  generation. 

This  process  gains  in  fullness  and  breadth,  though  not  al- 
ways in  strength,  by  the  child's  coming  in  contact  with  its 
environment,  the  main  furtherance  being  obtained  from  the 
multitudinous  forms  of  civilized  life.  It  is  these  forms  that 
generally  call  forth  the  first  questions  asked  by  a  child,  and  thus 
the  first  steps  toward  education  and  culture  are  taken  long 
before  formal  instruction  begins.  The  habits  formed  under  the 
influence  of  the  atmosphere  of  culture  which  "the  young  savages 
in  our  midst"  are  compelled  to  breathe,  contribute  more  to  their 
refinement  than  discipline  and  formal  teaching.  The  products 
of  civilization  and  the  results  of  technical  skill  eloquently  em- 
body ideasx  and  purposes;  they  can  be  said  to  hold  in  bondage 
thoughts'  which  are  set  free  by  him  who  inquires  into  their 
deeper  meaning;  for  to  understand  fully  any  created  thing,  re- 
quires that  we,  in  a  certain  sense,  recreate  it;  and  every  article 
that  is  the  result  of  mental  efforts  presupposes  mental  activity. 
Consequently,  the  property  of  the  parents,  the  furnishings  of 
the  house,  and  the  thousand  and  one  articles  in  a  cultured  home 
encourage  the  process  of  assimilation,  because  the  ideas  associ- 
ated with  them  are  transmitted  to  the  children,  who  grow  up 
among  these  things.  This  psychological  process  is  an  argument 
for  the  hereditary  transmission  of  goods;  for  after  the  property 
of  father  and  mother  has,  in  this  way,  proved,  a  helpful  agency 
of  education  and  culture  to  the  children,  it  is  appropriate  that 
it  should  remain  in  their  hands. 

The  hereditary  transmission  of  property,  as  regulated  by 
law,  is  a  strong  bond  connecting,  the  generations  which  succeed 
one  another  and  preserving  the  continuity  of  social  labor.2  By 
inheritance,  we  may  say,  the  new  generation  receives  thefundus 
instructus  of  civilized  life,  the  material  basis  spiritually  assimi- 
lated and  improved  by  successive  generations,  for  continuing 
the  work  of  the  human  race.  The  laws  governing  inheritance 
affect  only  one  part  of  this  relationship,  namely,  the  trans- 

1  "Condensed  thought"  (verdichtetes  Denken);    cf.  Lazarus,  Leben  der  Seele, 
2nd  ed.,  II,  213  ff. 

2  Roscher,  Ansichten  der   Volkswirtschaft,  42. 


IO  INTRODUCTION 

mission  of  private  property,  but  they  do  not  affect  the  trans- 
mission of  public  and  collective  possessions;  for  the  property 
belonging  to  the  State,  its  rights  and  privileges,  monuments  of 
religion,  works  of  art,  are  likewise  handed  down  to  the  suc- 
ceeding generations.1  Lest  we  miss  the  psychological  import  of 
this  nation-wide  transmission  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  is 
not  a  mere  transfer  of  material  property,  but  a  link  in  a  chain 
that  connects  various  psychical  activities.  Hopes  and  mem- 
ories, traditions  and  duties,  views  and  intentions,  attach  even 
to  private  property.  To  the  nation,  its  public  and  collective 
possessions  convey  a  still  deeper  meaning:  national  shrines  and 
monuments-  are  handed  down  to  future  generations,  not  as 
chattels,  but  as  solemn  pledges  and  trusts.  When  taking  over 
the  Acropolis,  the  youth  of  Athens  entered  upon  the  rich  heir- 
loom of  their  country's  history. 

5.  The  psychic  agencies  which  are  subject  to  the  will  also 
assist  in  the  transmission  of  those  intellectual  and  moral  gifts 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  are  so  closely  connected  with  a  nation's 
material  possessions.  Alongside  of  that  spontaneous  assimila- 
tion, which  we  have  called  a  psychic  process,  run  the  varied 
conscious  influences  of  society  upon  the  young. 

There  is  no  single  term  that  covers  the  totality  of  these 
conscious  efforts,  and  hence  compound  phrases  'have  been  gen- 
erally employed.  Thus  the  Greeks  joined:  do-Kelv  /cat  StSdV- 
/cetv,  to  practice  and  to  teach;  Tratdeuetv  /cat  dcnceu>,  to  edu- 
cate and  practice;  or,  with  a  different  shade  of  meaning,  ayeu> 
/cat  TratSeveu',  to  lead  and  to  educate;  or  placed  together  such 
expressions  as:  paOelv  and  TraOelv,  to  learn  and  to  experience; 
e#os  and  \oyos,  habit  and  teaching;  e#t£eo-#at  and  a/couetv,  to 
habituate  and  to  hear;  or,  in  a  more  extensive  enumeration:. 
€$17  /cat  TratSetat  /cat  SiSacr/caXtat  /cat  ftiwv  ayaryai,  habits, 
education,  instructions,  and  directions."'  The  Romans  joined 
together:  studio,  and  artes;  dqctrina,  disciplina,  and  institutio. 
The  Germans  say:  Lernen  und  Ueben;  Lehre  und  Leitung;  Unter- 
weisung  und  Uebung;  Unterricht  und  Zucht.  The  following  ex- 
pressions are  familiar  to  English  ears:  theory  and  practice; 
lesson  and  exercise;  schooling  and  training;  instruction  and  disci- 
pline. These  pairs  of  terms  either  contrast  intellectual  and 
moral  training,  or  distinguish  between  theoretical  knowledge 
and  practical  skill,  or  combine  the  concepts  of  intellectual  pro- 

1  Schaffle,  Ban  und  Leben  des  sozialen  Korpers,  II,    102. 

2  iPseudoplutarch,  De  Educatione  Puerorum,  c.  4. 


INTRODUCTION  I  I 

ficiency  and  moral  perfection.  None  of  them,  however,  em- 
braces all  the  activities  belonging  to  the  subject.  Still  usage 
justifies  us  in  letting  the  terms  teaching  and  discipline  (Lehre 
und  Zucht)  denote  the  two  principal  categories  and  in  enlarging 
the  scope  of  their  meaning  so  as  to  embrace  practice,  training 
of  habits,  schooling,  direction  and  instruction,  guiding  and  moral 
improvement,  etc.  The  element  of  teaching  transmits  to  the 
young  the  intellectual  content  of  education  (knowledge  and  skill, 
teachings  of  philosophy  and  doctrines  of  faith)  and  renders  in- 
tellectual assimilation  a  conscious  process.  The  element  of  dis- 
cipline introduces  the  young  into  the  moral  life  of  the  com- 
munity, admits  them  to  full  membership  in  society,  and  lets 
them  share  its  moral  interests. 

All  associations  and  classes  of  the  social  organism  are  con- 
tinuously engaged  in  the  work  of  incorporating  their  new  ele- 
ments by  teaching  and  discipline;  and  not  only  the  pupil,  but 
also  the  apprentice  and  the  recruit,  the  novice  and  the  neo- 
phyte, the  tyro  and  the  beginner  in  any  field,  must  be  intel- 
lectually and  morally  assimilated  to  the  respective  social  bodies 
into  whose  sphere  they  have  entered. 

6.  Reproduction  and  heredity,  the  care  of  the  young,  the 
spontaneous  assimilation  of  child  to  parent,  the  hereditary  trans- 
mission of  property,  the  conscious  and  more  or  less  systematic 
influences  exercised  by  teaching  and  discipline, — these  are  the 
essential  stages  of  the  process  by  which  the  reconstruction  of 
social  life  is  wrought.  Upon  closer  examination,  however,  we 
perceive  that  reproduction  and  heredity  alone  are  the  peculiar 
and  characteristic  attributes  of  this  process,  since  the  others, 
though  in  a  modified  form,  occur  also  in  other  fields  of  social 
life.  It  is  not  only  in  behalf  of  the  young  that  efforts  are  made 
to  provide  the  necessaries  of  physical  life.  No  stage  of  civili- 
zation neglects  the  erection  of  hospitals  and  homes  for  the  aged 
and  feeble.  The  opinions,  maxims,  and  practices  of  medical 
science  influence  the  care  of  children,  and  with  the  development 
of  medical  science  grows  its  influence  in  the  nursery.  The  spon- 
taneous assimilation  by  which  the  child,  as  it  were,  grows  into 
its  environment,  has  a  counterpart  in  the  phenomenon  that 
association  and  intercourse  everywhere  produce  similar  results. 
Adults,  like  children,  adopt  without  special  effort  the  opinions 
and  sympathies,  the  style  and  manner  of  those  with  whom  they 
associate.  Young  and  old  become  refined  by  moving  in  polite 
society;  among  the  rude,  they  develop  into  boors;  savages  be- 
come civilized  if  thrown  into  intimate  companionship  with 


12  INTRODUCTION 

Europeans;  the  white  man  of  refinement  will  lose  his  delicate 
breeding  if  doomed  to  a  life  among  savages.  Individuals  are 
not  alone  in  being  susceptible  to  the  transforming  influences 
emanating  from  communities,  for  whole  classes  of  society  as- 
similate one  another  either  by  mutually  exchanging  customs 
and  practices,  or  by  effacing  the  characters  that  are  less  strong, 
and  offer,  therefore,  less  resistance.  Even  nationality  may  be 
transmitted,,  if  not  without  the  aid  of  compelling  forces,  yet  in 
a  perfectly  natural  way.  And  thus  the  assimilation  of  the 
young  to  the  old  is  but  an  exemplification  of  a  broad  psycho- 
logical and  sociological  law  that  has  no  particular  bearing  on 
the  reconstruction  of  society.  Similarly,  the  transfer  of  ma- 
terial property,  though  an  important  factor  in  the  solidarity 
between  successive  generations,  has  nevertheless  no  direct  bear- 
ing on  social  reconstruction.  Property  changes  hands  hot  only 
through  inheritance;  sales,  whether  free  or  forced,  and  donations 
must  also  be  considered  beside  the  fact  that  even  hereditary 
transmission  is  not  confined  to  the  descendants,  but  can  extend 
to  the  collateral  relations. 

Teaching  and  discipline  can  both  be  traced  back  to  the 
general  functions  of  society,  and  offer  the  best  opportunity  for 
studying  the  reconstruction  of  social  life.  Teaching,  in  general, 
transmits  an  intellectual  content  from  one  mind  to  another,  and 
in  so  doing,  not  only  reproduces  but  enlarges  the  matter  trans- 
mitted. But  there  is  a  form  of  teaching  which  either  goes 
beyond  the  intellectual  assimilation  of  the  new  generation,  or 
is  not  at  all  concerned  with  it.  Missions,  sermons,  religious 
propaganda  are  forms  of  teaching  with  which  the  instruction 
and  education  of  children  can  well  be  associated,  but  which  are 
primarily  addressed  to  adults,  to  "the  men  of  every  nation 
under  heaven,"  to  employ  a  Scriptural  term.  Science  needs 
teaching  as  a  vital  element,  because  the  purpose  of  all  science 
is  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  knowledge,  not  only  for  him  who 
is  in  possession,  but  also  for  him  who  is  in  search  of  it.  The 
research  worker  is  not  satisfied  unless  he  can  communicate  his 
discoveries  to  others;  what  has  been  thought  out  in  solitude, 
becomes  a  vital  force  only  when  brought  into  contact  with  an 
outside  consciousness.  He  who  communicates  the  results  of  his 
inquiry  or  speculation  to  others,  teaches;  and  the  great  men  of 
science  are  the  teachers  of  their  age,  if  not  of  all  future  time; 
the  circles  that  gather  about  such  leaders  are  known  by  the 
same  name  as  the  lecture  halls  and  laboratory  buildings,  for 
they  are  called  a  "school".  The  artist,  too,  who  sets  the  fash- 


INTRODUCTION  13 

ion  for  his  contemporaries,  is  known f as  their  teacher;  and  the 
disciples  who  recognize  him  as  such  are  called  his  "school". 
The  term  "master"  connotes  both  production  and  teaching; 
and  the  disciple  as  well  as  the  apprentice  is  a  "learner".  Me- 
chanical and  technical  skill  presupposes  learning  and  imitation  - 
the  showing  of  models  frequently  taking  the  place  of  teaching. 
Civilized  life  abounds  in  sources  of  knowledge  which  no  indi- 
vidual can  ever  outgrow;  yea,  we  only  grow  up  to  them  when 
we  have  completed  our  course  of  schoolroom  study.  Books  can, 
for  purposes  of  teaching,  be  called  the  eternal  fountain-head  of 
knowledge,  for  they  give  visible  and  permanent  form  to  the 
intellectual  content,  and  conserve,  the  spoken  word  as  a  teaching 
voice — an  achievement  which  appeared  to  the  ancients  little 
short  of  divine.  The  influence  of  the  book  is  not  limited  by 
time  and  space,  as  is  teaching  by  word  of  mouth;  though  its 
teaching  be  mute,  its  voice  is  louder  than  that  of  any  living 
man,  and  it  will  be, a  teacher  and  guide  to  generations  yet  unborn. 

From  this  point  of  view,  the  teaching  that  serves  as  a  means 
in  the  intellectual  assimilation  of  the  young  appears  but  as  a 
specific  instance  of  a  general  function  of  intellectual  life.  The 
same  is  true  of  discipline,  which  is  its  complement.  As  no  man 
can  outgrow  the  work  of  learning  and  the  broadening  and  cor- 
recting of  his  views,  so  none  can  escape  the  checking  and  di- 
recting influences  that  proceed  from  social  institutions.  All 
social  organizations  exert  a  disciplinary  influence  upon  their 
members,  and  that,  not  only  upon  the  newcomers,  who  must 
be  trained,  to  live  up  to  existing  conditions,  but  also  upon  the 
veterans,  keeping  their  conduct  in  harmony  with  the  ruling 
standards.  We  speak  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  military  dis- 
cipline, police  discipline — of  the  discipline,  in  fact,  of  social 
bodies  of  every  description.  The  penal  code  of  a  State  repre- 
sents the  efforts  of  public  authority  to  maintain  its  laws  by 
rigorous  discipline.  Besides  the  forces  which  are  at  work  for 
the  training  of  our  young  people  in  morality,  there  are  others 
aiming  at  the  uplift  of  the  masses;  and  the  care  for  the  per- 
petuation of  morality  is  closely  bound  up  with  the  .task  of  pre- 
serving its  existence  in  the  present.  History  even  records  in- 
stances where  the  purposes  of  both  functions  overlap;  thus,  in 
the  patriarchal  system  of  ancient  China,  the  education  of  the 
young  was  entrusted  entirely  to  the  police,  while  the  pedagogy 
of  Sparta  knew  no  higher  aim  than  to  train  future  soldiers. 

7.  Considering  the  agencies,  then,  which  serve  the  process  of 
social  reconstruction,  we  must  admit  that  individually  they 


14  INTRODUCTION 

possess  no  specific  relation  to  the  new  elements,  but  spread  out, 
as  it  were,  in  a  collateral  direction.  This,  however,  militates  in 
no  way  against  the  harmony  and  unity  of  the  process,  nor  against 
its  being  recognized  as  a  distinctive  vital  function  of  the  social 
organism.  The  relation  between  the  one  generation  in  its  ma- 
turity and  the  other  in  its  growth  and  development  is  too  spe- 
cific, and  its  ends  are  outlined  too  clearly  to  preclude  the  cre- 
ation of  spheres,  complete  in  themselves,  of  activities,  laws,  and 
institutions.  The  system  of  moral  education  and  the  system  of 
intellectual  education  (Erziehungswesen  und  Bildungsweseri)  are 
such  spheres;  both  rest  on  the  broad  foundation  of  civilized  life, 
are  interrelated  with  each  other  and  other  fields  besides,  and 
yet  possess,  by  reason  of  their  own  purposes  and  problems,  a 
sufficiently  distinct  character. 

"Education"  is  etymologically  derived  from  the  process  of 
rearing  children  (educere^  to  lead  forth,  bring  up  a  child).  At 
first  it  was  regarded  as  a  continuation  or  intensification  of  the 
work  directed  toward  the  bodily  well-being  and  growth  of  the 
child;  but  since  the  terms  employed  for  the  latter  work  are 
related  to  the  expressions  in  use  for  the  process  of  generation,1 
education  is  looked  upon,  not  merely  as  furtherance  of  life,  but 
as  a  life-giving  process.  Like  the  person  entrusted  with  the 
upbringing  of  a  child,  the  educator  watches  over  the  develop- 
ment of  a  life  that  stands  in  need  of  protection,  assistance,  and  di- 
rection from  others:  his  task  is  analogous  to  generation  in  that 
he  reproduces,  not  a  bodily  and  external,  but  an  inner,  moral 
form.  The  work  of  rearing  as  well  as  of  educating  is  begun  in 
the  home  and  within  the  family  circle.  There  physical  life  is 
produced  and  there  the  moral  life  also  finds  the  most  congenial 
environment  for  its  first  tender  growth;  and  as  the  mother- 
tongue  marks  the  beginning  of  intellectual  training,  so  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  home  are  the  first  aids  to  the  moral 
development  of  the  child.  Mere  re.aring  is  converted  into  edu- 
cation as  soon  as  the  instinctive  impulses  of  the  child  become 
an  object  of  care;  to  control  these,  to  suppress  those  that  make 
for  evil,  to  encourage  those  .that  exert  a  favorable  influence,  to 
assist  the  mind  wavering  between  good  and  bad,  to  strengthen 
it  until  good  habits  are  formed, — this  is  the  first  and  most  ob- 
vious purpose  of  education.  Its  main  support  is  the  relation 
between  authority  and  obedience,  and  in  this  respect  education 
coincides  with  discipline;  but  it  has  a  vastly  richer  content  than 

1  Cf.  supra,  p.  6. 


INTRODUCTION  15 

the  exercise  of  mere  discipline,  as  its  activity  is  directed  toward 
the  future  and  its  aim  is  to  provide  well  for  the  child.  Taking 
the  place  of  a  Reason  as  yet  immature,  the  educator  makes 
such  preparations  as  his  charge,  when  arrived  at  maturity,  may 
be  expected  to  approve  and  continue.  The  educator  is  not 
satisfied  with  inculcating  good  manners,  he  wishes  to  improve 
the  moral  side  also;  and  hence  he  does  not  confine  himself  to 
regulating  the  present  impulses  and  actions  of  the  child,  but 
inspires  new  motives  and  higher  impulses,  thus  grafting  a  noble 
scion  upon  wild  stock.  To  accomplish  this,  he  must  employ 
intellectual  agencies;  and  hence  education,  by  teaching,  instruct- 
ing, and  intellectually  stimulating,  enters  into  the  domain  of 
doctrine.  Instruction,  which  may  be  defined  as  a  systematic 
inculcation  of  doctrines  adapted  to  promote  the  assimilation  of 
knowledge,  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  forces  in  education.  On 
the  one  hand  it  gives  the  young,  who  are  drawn  hither  and 
thither  by  diverse  aspirations,  an  opportunity  for  well-regulated 
activity  and  exercise  of  faculties;  while  on  the  other  hand  it 
broadens  and  enriches  their  mental  horizon  by  awaking  interests 
which  engender  new  impulses  and  fresh  efforts.  Like  discipline, 
instruction,  to  be  truly  educative,  must  not  content  itself  with 
a  momentary  and  partial  growth  in  knowledge;  but,  with  an  eye 
to  the  future,  must  adapt  its  purpose  and  methods  to  mental 
development. 

Education  is  a  moral,  and  therefore  conscious,  activity.  It 
proceeds  from  one  person  and  enters  another,  the  latter  being 
in  a  developmental  stage.  It  is  neither  that  unconscious  (or 
semi-conscious)  assimilation  by  which  the  young  are  made  like 
the  old,  nor  a  process  for  merely  controlling  the  actions  of  the 
young,  without  ever  asking  whether  the  influences  exerted  upon 
the  child  penetrate  its  soul  and  there  unite  in  one  harmonious 
total  effect.  Education  is  not  a  mere  giving  forth  of  knowledge, 
nor  does  it  consist  in  sowing  seed  without  regard  as  to  whether 
it  will  sprout  and  grow.  This  does  not  mean,  however,  that 
education  can  dispense  with  the  unconscious  and  semi-conscious 
influences  that  spring  from  the  mutual  intercourse  of  men.  The 
purposive  influences  which  it  brings  to  bear  would  remain  a 
mere  aggregate,  an  incoherent  mass,  if  they  lacked  the  subtle 
and  spontaneous  emanations  of  community  life,  because  it  is 
these  which  give  a  basis  and  continuity  to  education.  With  the 
influences  of  the  environment  hostile,  these  influences  could 
never  strike  root.  Unconscious  assimilation  is  an  important 
factor  which  must  be  taken  into  account  by  the  educator.  It 


16  INTRODUCTION 

is  like  an  elemental  force,  which,  if  rightly  directed,  assists  the 
work  of  the  mind,  but,  if  ignored  or  unchecked,  destroys  the 
results  of  weary  labors. 

8.  In  as  far  as  education  provides  for  the  development  of 
the  growing  generation,  it  may  be  said  to  be  looking  into  the 
future;  but,  like  the  head  of  Janus,  it  has  two  faces,  one  of  which 
constantly  looks  backward  upon  the  chain  of  past  generations, 
to  which  it  is  adding  a  new  link,  and  upon  the  treasures  of  civ- 
ilization, which  it  must  conserve  and  transmit.  Education  is, 
then,  the  fulfillment  of  a  double  duty  :  of  charity  towards  the 
new  generation  and  of  a  social  duty  towards  the  organisms  and 
individual  representatives  of  culture,  to  whom  it  commits  the 
young  in  order  that  the  State  may  have  citizens;  society,  work- 
ers; the  nation,  people;  and  the  religious  bodies,  communicants. 
The  individual  ethos  of  education  is  inseparable  from  the  social; 
parental  authority  reflects  the  State;  the  customs  of  the  family, 
the  morals  of  the  nation;  and  the  intellectual  content,  which 
furnishes  the  basis  of  instruction  and  the  guiding  principles  of 
discipline,  is  derived  from  the  very  life  of  society.  Despite  the 
liberty  granted  the  individual  teacher,  therefore,  education  is 
after  all  a  homologous  activity,  and,  (as  history,  especially  an- 
cient history  shows)  it  may  be  made  collective  by  treating  it 
as  a  public  concern  with  the  State  as  chief  educator.  But  even 
where  no  such  collective  activity  has  resulted,  we  may  speak  of 
education  as  a  system  embracing  all  educational  forces,  meas- 
ures, means,  and  institutions,  though  they  may  not  assume  the 
form  of  a  separate  and  definite  organ  of  the  social  body. 

Education  occupies  a  middle  position  in  the  work  of  recon- 
structing the  social  life.  The  reproduction  and  rearing  of  the 
young  precede  education,  while  the  incorporation  of  the  new 
elements  into  the  various  classes  of  society  and  their  training 
for  the  special  tasks  assigned  to  them  there,  as  a  rule  presuppose 
education  in  the  general  sense;  for  education  in  that  sense  moves 
in  the  general  and  basic  realm,  and  is  therefore  rightly  con- 
sidered as  opposed  to  the  vocational  training  required  for  par- 
ticular walks  in  life  and  acquired,  in  great  measure,  only  in  the 
respective  profession.  Professional  training  ma^,  nay  in  some 
instances,  e. £.,  in  the  training  of  apprentices,  must  admit  certain 
pedagogical  elements;  whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  vocational 
training  may  have  to  begin  in  the  cradle,  as  with  princes.  Yet 
the  educational  ethos  is  entirely  distinct  from  the  tendency  to 
enable  a  man  to  enter  a  particular  profession.  Education  at- 
tends mainly  to  the  individual;  its  principles  are  the  general 


INTRODUCTION  1>J 

and  basic  principles  of  morality;  and  it  prepares  for  practical 
efficiency  only  in  as  far  as  the  moral  assimilation  which  it  ef- 
fects is  a  prime  requisite  for  all  social  achievement.  In  pro- 
fessional training,  on  the  contrary,  special  interests  and  pro- 
fessional needs  are  of  first  importance,  and  the  development  of 
personality  is  a  purely  secondary  consideration. 

Hence  education  may  be  described  as  the  homologous  activity 
of  the  adult  generation  in  watching  over  and  directing  the  as- 
pirations of  the  young,  in  order  to  make  them  moral  by  trans- 
mitting to  them  the  foundations  of  its  own  moral  and  intel- 
lectual life. 

9.  It  is  far  more  difficult  to  determine  the  precise  import  of 
the  term  intellectual  education  (Bildung)}  Intellectual  educa- 
tion implies  in  the  first  place  an  internal,  mental  form,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  mechanical  acquisition  of  knowledge.  In  im- 
parting intellectual  education  we  do  more  than  impart  knowl- 
edge; we  convert  the  matter  imparted  into  a  dynamic  force, 
into  an  intellectually  productive  content.  Materially  education 
means  an  increase  in  knowledge;  intellectually  it  means  an  in- 
crease in  the  plastic  power  of  the  mind.  What  has  been  learned 
by  heart  or  acquired  by  dint  of  exercise  and  practice,  may  be 
lost  in  course  of  time;  but  the  degree  of  intellectual  education 
once  attained  will  ever  remain  the  pupil's  property,  though  the 
means  employed  in  imparting  it  may  have  been  lost.  The  intel- 
lectual culture  acquired  develops  into  a  habit  of  the  soul  mod- 
ifying the  whole  personality. 

Intellectual  education  is  a  co-factor  along  with  temperament, 
natural  disposition,  talents  and  faculties,  in  the  development  of 
the  individual;  but  being  a  product  of  free  will,  it  is  opposed  to 
what  are  mere  factors  of  nature.  Intellectual  education  is  the 
fruit  of  work,  work  performed  by  the  subject  himself  and  by 
others.  To  acquire  an  intellectual  education,  the  pupil  must 
of  his  own  free  will  grasp  a  body  of  intellectual  truths.  In  this 
sense  we  speak  of  striving  for  culture,  of  the  sources  of  culture, 
etc.  But  beside  the  efforts  of  the  individual,  other  (social) 
factors,  more  or  less  organized,  must  also  be  active;  and  these 
constitute  intellectual  education  as  a  system.  The  process  of 
intellectual  education  is  both  individual  and  social.  The  intel- 

1  Intellectual  education  is  the  nearest  approach,  in  our  opinion,  to  the  German 
Bildung.  Among  the  Germans  themselves  so  exact  a  writer  as  Kant  used  Kultur 
instead  of  the  modern  term  Bildung.  To  Winkelmann,  Gothe,  and  Schiller,  Bil- 
dung signified  more  the  material  action  of  forming  and  the  resulting  form.  The 
perfection  of  intellectual  training  they  designated  as  Aufklarung  (enlightenment). 
2 


l8  INTRODUCTION 

lectual  education  possessed  by  an  individual  is  his  property,  but 
not  exclusively  his.  To  be  an  educated  man  is  merely  to  belong 
to  the  class  of  the  educated.  It  is  not  the  individual,  however, 
but  the  whole  circle  of  the  educated  that  are  the  representatives 
of  education.  They  represent  a  community;  and  it  is  in  this 
sense  that  we  speak  of  general  education  as  being  an  intellectual 
property  common  to  all.  However,  we  should  not  conceive 
this  generality  of  intellectual  education  too  narrowly,  as 
there  are  both  social  limits  and  social  grades.  Intellectual  edu- 
cation, in  fact,  admits  of  different  degrees  and  is  of  different 
kinds:  we  distinguish  between  the  education  of  the  scholar  and 
that  of  the  gentleman,  between  the  education  of  the  higher 
classes  and  that  of  the  masses.  By  a  rigorous  use,  the  term 
intellectual  education  might  even  be  made  to  exclude,  entirely 
the  masses  from  the  educated  class.  But  this  would  be  a  misuse 
of  the  word  because  the  lower  classes  are  not  outside  the  pale 
of  intellectual  education,  and  in  highly  civilized  communities  are 
generally  quite  active  in  its  behalf. 

The  intellectual  content  which  must  be  assimilated  before 
one  can  attain  to  any  particular  stage  of  intellectual  education, 
is  not  always  the  same;  but  it  has  one  feature  in  common,  viz., 
that,  the  knowledge  and  skill  required  is  general  and  basic  for 
all  stages.  By  reason  of  this  common  content,  which  is  gen- 
erally received  and  generally  useful,  intellectual  education  is 
called  general?  and  as  such  differs  from  the  intellectual  edu- 
cation belonging  to  a  class  or  a  special  profession.  The  so- 
called  cultural  studies  are  concerned  principally  with  the  general 
elements  of  knowledge.  Intellectual  education  demands  more 
than  merely  vocational  skill,  and  only  cultural  studies  can  pro- 
duce a  harmonious  whole — a  thing  impossible  of  attainment  by 
specialized  and  one-sided  vocational  training.  But  the  very 
generality  which  is  the  characteristic  trait  of  cultural  studies, 
frequently  leads  to  the  reception  of  counterfeits  of  intellectual 
education  as  current  gold  coin.  From  superficial  knowledge 
nought  but  superficial  culture  can  result;  when  the  lower  classes 
ape  a  culture  other  than  their  own,  vulgarity  is  the  inevitable 
outcome;  and  the  fashions  of  the  passing  hour  can  never  super- 
sede the  eternal  foundations  of  true  and  tried  culture. 

10.  To  discover  the  relation  between  moral  and  intellectual 

1  The  Greek  terminology  shows  a  like  charige  in  meaning  as  the  modern  lan- 
guages. The  fyKi!>K\i.a  iratSe^ora  or  /xadi^uara  denoted  originally  the  studies  common 
to  the  educated,  but  later  they  signified  the  course  of  study  embracing  the  gen- 
eral elements  of  knowledge. 


INTRODUCTION  IQ 

education  we  must  consider  their  respective  foundations.     The 
elements  that  make  up  the  matter  of  intellectual  education  reach 
over  into  the  foundations  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  content 
of  life  which  moral  education  transmits  to  the  young.     The  two- 
fold purpose  of  moral  education  —  namely  the  ethical  formation 
of  the  developing  life  and  the  transmission  of  the  treasures  of 
civilization — has  a  counterpart  in  intellectual  education,  for  the 
latter  must  also  be  something  more  than  a  mere  accomplishment 
or  ornament.  The  inner  form  which  it  imparts  to  human  person- 
ality should  also  be  a  moral  support;  and  intellectual  education 
is  likewise  concerned  with  the  conservation  and  transmission  of 
intellectual  treasures.     Moral  education  and  intellectual  educa- 
tion, nevertheless,  present  some  marked  differences,  the  former 
being  concerned  primarily  with  the  appetencies  and  the  will,  the 
latter,  with  the  intellect.  The  former  is  moral  assimilation;  the 
latter,  intellectual.  The  mainstays  of  moral  education  are  author- 
ity and  obedience,  whereas  intellectual  education  requires,  be- 
sides subjection  to  authority,  free  and  spontaneous  co-operation 
on  the  part  of  the  subject.     The  work  of  moral  education  ends 
with  the  maturity  of  reason,  whereas  intellectual  education  must 
be  continued  beyond  that  period  and  may  well  occupy  the  whole 
life.     Moral  education  derives  its  character  from  the  ethos  and 
the  forms  of  domestic  and  public  life,  from  the  organism  and 
morals  of  society;  whereas  intellectual  education  depends  mainly 
on  the  intellectual  activity  evinced  in  the  language  and  beliefs, 
the  arts  and  sciences  of  a  nation.     Moral  education  is  satisfied 
with   shaping   the   educational   activities   according   to   a   well- 
defined  plan,  while  intellectual  education  busies  itself  with  col- 
lecting and  organizing,  develops  into  an  organ  of  society  destined 
to  control  the  transmission  of  intellectual  treasures  in  a  manner 
somewhat  analogous  to  the  exchange  of  material  goods  in  our 
markets. 

To  summarize,  we  may  define  a  country's  system  of  intel- 
lectuaT~ecIucation  as  the  sum  total  of  the  institutions,  means 
and  helps  which  enable  individuals  to  master  the  elements  of 
general  knowledge  as  well  as  to  acquire  a  certain  general  facility 
of  doing  things,  both  this  knowledge  and  this  facility  being 
freely  attainable  and  fecund  elements  of  intellectual  life,  which 
serve  as  stepping  stones  for  reaching  certain  degrees  of  intel- 
lectual and  moral  proficiency.1 

1  In  the  present  work  we  shall  use  the  term  education  in  this  sense,  i.  e.,  to 
signify  mental  and  intellectual,  not  moral,  training.  (Tr.) 


2O  INTRODUCTION 

II. 

I.  Plato  reports  Socrates  as  saying  that  astonishment  is  an 
emotion  worthy  of  the  philosopher,  because  it  marks  the  first 
stage  of  speculation.  Aristotle  contends  that  men  have  at  all 
times  proceeded  from  astonishment  to  philosophy.'  In  matter 
of  fact,  nothing  truly  scientific  is  undertaken  except  on  the  spur 
of  surprise  and  wonderment  at  some  unexplained  marvel.  The 
scholar  begins  by  marvelling  at  some  strange  object  that  baffles 
explanation;  by  and  by  he  is  completely  taken  up  with  the 
mystery,  and  finally  he  determines  to  examine  it  from  all  sides, 
to  scrutinize  it,  to  fathom  it  in  all  its  bearings.  This  is  scien- 
tific research  in  its  perfect  form,  carried  out  independently  of 
utilitarian  advantages.  The  questions  put  by  children  and  the 
nature  myths  of  primitive  nations  reveal  at  first  hand  the  charm 
exercised  upon  the  mind  by  new  and  strange  objects.  The  same 
charm  is  potent  in  research  work,  even  when  this  is  directed 
towards  a  practical  purpose;  it  is,  however,  most  active  in  pure- 
ly theoretical  speculation. 

The  different  sciences  did  not  pass  simultaneously  from  the 
field  of  practical  utility  into  the  higher  realm  of  theoretical 
speculation,  whose  threshold  is  marked  by  surprise  and  wonder- 
ment. Astronomy  is  one  of  the  few  which  deal  with  the  mar- 
velous in  their  very  first  stages  and  are  subservient  to  scarcely 
any  practical  demands,  but  soar  aloft  into  the  empyrean  of  pure 
science.  Most  sciences  must  first  assimilate  and  reproduce  the 
facts  and  objects  before  they  can  indulge  in  speculation.  His- 
torically, the  first  object  of  science  was  not  the  discovery  of 
facts  but  a  problem  to  be  solved;  problems,  not  ready  knowl- 
edge, first  stimulated  the  human  mind.  The  natural  sciences 
were  the  first  to  ascend  to  the  stage  of  pure  theory;  next  came 
the  sciences  that  deal  with  man  and  the  moral  order.  Of  the 
moral  sciences,  those  dealing  with  general  institutions  lying  be- 
yond the  individual,  preceded  those  whose  objects  were  more 
changeable  and  that  depend  on  the  individual  and  his  whims, 
or  extend  into  everyday  life;  for  as  "use  lessens  marvel,"  so  the 
objects  of  our  daily  environment  are  ill  adapted  to  inspire  that 
speculative  spirit  which  proceeds  from  wonderment. 

1  Plato,  Thecet.,  p.  155.  Aristotle,  Met.,  I,  2;  Rhet..  I,  n.  The  senti- 
ment would  seem  to  have  been  familiar  to  the  ancient  mind;  cf.  Olympiodor, 
E/J  rbv  UX&TUVOS  trp&rov  'A\Kt^tddr]v  ed.  Creuzer.  p.  24,  and  Proclos  in  the  work 
bearing  the  same  title,  Creuzer,  p.  46. 


INTRODUCTION  21 

Education  is  affected  more  than  any  other  science  by  this 
disadvantage.  Its  object  is  not  large,  like  that  of  political 
science  or  that  of  jurisprudence.  The  activity  which  it  inves- 
tigates is  concerned  primarily  with  the  individual  only;  it  de- 
scends to  small,  and  even  minute,  particulars;  it  leaves  much 
to  discretion,  temperament,  and  individual  interests;  and  con- 
sequently often  seeks  advice  and  regulation.  The  final  aims  of 
education  are  of  an  ideal  nature,  and,  considered  from  this  point 
of  view,  pedagogy  and  didactic  must  be  regarded  as  the  most 
ideal  forms  of  artistic  instruction.  Yet,  by  very  reason  of  this 
ideal  mission,  education  is  prevented  from  regarding  its  objects 
as  concrete  facts  and  looking  upon  them  with  the  interest  of  a 
research  worker.  Thus  education  appears  as  a  chaos  of  contra- 
dictory views,  or  at  best  as  a  system  of  principles,  rules,  and 
suggestions  abounding  in  counsel  but  poor  in  observations  and 
facts.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  much  educational  literature  is 
scientific  in  treatment;  but  this  is  owing  to  the  accidental  cir- 
cumstance that  the  writers  were  at  home  in  some  other  science  - 
theology,  philology,  philosophy,  history — and  that  their  educa- 
tional treatises  derive  an  advantage  from  the  proficiency  there 
acquired  rather  than  to  any  light  they  derive  from  the  topic  of 
education  itself.  Eminent  educationists  have  not  scrupled  to 
deny  to  education  the  character  of  a  science;  and  some  have 
even  declared  the  popular  essay,  the  very  reverse  of  scientific 
research,  to  be  its  proper  element.  A  witty  teacher  ventured 
the  opinion  that  "Pedagogy  teaches  partly  what  we  all  know 
and  partly  what  no  one  can  know. " 

And  yet  it  is  only  necessary  to  take  the  right  viewpoint  to 
be  persuaded  that  the  subject  of  education  is  by  no  means  des- 
titute of  that  which  must  elicit  scientific  thought  and  which 
assures  a  rich  harvest  for  all  scientific  work  spent  on  it.  If  we 
examine  our  subject  at  close  range,  we  shall  perceive  that  it 
includes  much  that  is  wonderful  (Oavp-aa-rov),  a  large  complex 
of  facts,  independent  and  comprehensive  enough  to  invite  the 
marvelling  contemplation  of  the  scholar.  Do  not  the  phenom- 
ena described  above  invite  scientific  research?  Undoubtedly  it 
is  worthy  of  scientific  scholarship  to  inquire  into  the  wonderful 
solidarity  of  succeeding  generations  of  men,  by  which  the  cre- 
ations and  acquisitions  of  the  race  are  conserved  despite  the 
continual  change  of  the  agencies  entrusted  with  their  care,  to 
discover  by  what  happy  coincidence  it  comes  to  pass  that  what 
has  been  acquired  and  conserved  by  preceding  generations,  what 
has  made  them  civilized  and  cultured,  that  this  is  transmitted 


22  INTRODUCTION 

to  one  generation  after  another  without  a  break  in  the  educative 
process;  and  to  examine  how  this  process  of  rejuvenation  com- 
bines and  interlaces  with  the  vital  functions  of  the  social  body, 
creating  at  the  same  time  its  own  proper  course  and  evolving 
its  special  organs. 

'  2.  Education  is  a  science  because  its  field  extends  to  the 
great  collective  phenomena  wherein  the  educative  and  cultural 
activity  of  the  race  has  taken  shape,  and  because  it  thereby 
gets  in  contact  with  the  phenomena,  both  collective  and  indi- 
vidual, of  the  social  world. 

The  demand  that  education  be  treated  as  a  part  of  sociology 
is  not  new,  but  ancient — in  fact,  the  science  of  education  is  an 
offspring  of  sociology.  •  Whenever  the  ancients  treated  educa- 
tion systematically,  they  had  practical  ends  in  view,  but  they 
always  dealt  with  the  subject  in  connection  with  political  and 
sociological  studies;  witness  Plato's  Republic.  In  this  work, 
which  stands  at  the  head  of  political  and  sociological  as  well  as 
educational  literature,  Plato  treats  of  education  twice:  first,  as 
the  aggregate  of  all  those  agencies  by  which  the  citizens  of  the 
ideal  State  are  to  be  imbued  with  the  moral  principles  upon 
which  the  commonwealth  is  based;1  second,  as  the  power  which 
is  to  raise  the  State  to  ideal  perfection  by  training  the  future 
philosopher-kings  and  directing  their  minds  towards  eternity 
and  the  Great  Beyond."  In  Plato's  Laws  the  basic  principle  of 
the  prospective  colonial  state  is  the  norm  for  controlling  the 
propagation  and  training  of  children,  their  teaching  and  dis- 
cipline, nay  even  their  games.3  The  same  work  furthermore 
contains  a  sort  of  comparative  pedagogy,  a  description  and  ap- 
preciation of  the  relative  merits  of  various  educational  systems 
among  Greeks  and  barbarians.4  In  several  passages  character- 
ized by  depth  and  beauty  education  is  described  as  a  new  life, 
as  a  social  and  religious  duty,  as  a  transmission  of  the  treasures 
of  civilization  from  generation  to  generation.  We  quote  but 
one  sentence,  which  recalls  a  thought  already  expressed  by 
Pythagoras:  "We  must  have  and  train  children,  transmitting 
to  them  the  torch  of  life,  so  that  generation  may  succeed  gen- 
eration, serving  the  gods  in  accordance  with  law  and  tradition."' 

1  Republic,  II,   p.  376  to  III,  p.  412. 

2  Ib.  VI,  pp.  503-541.  3   Laws,  VII,  p.  798. 

4  Spartan  education  especially  II,  p.  666;    Persian  III,   p.  694;  ancient  Attic 
III,  p.  700;  Egyptian  VII,  p.  798  and  819. 

5  Ib.  VI,  p.  776;  cf.  Jambl.  Vit.  Pyth.,  85;   see  also  Legg.,  II,  p.  659;  III,  p. 
681,  and  X,  p.  887. 


INTRODUCTION  23 

Aristotle's  pedagogical  system  also  is  essentially  sociological. 
Education  in  a  State  is  determined  by  the  constitution  and  is 
its  preserving  element;  every  constitution  is  an  outgrowth  of 
the  ethos  of  the  nation,  is  safeguarded  by  the  preservation  of 
that  ethos,  and  improved  by  its  elevation,  both  of  which  func- 
tions (preservation  and  elevation  of  the  national  ethos)  belong 
to  education.1  Home  education  likewise  requires  that  the  at- 
tention be  focussed  upon  the  whole  nation:  to  instruct  even  a 
few  in  virtue,  one  must  be  endowed  with  the  gifts  of  the  legis- 
lator.' 

The  pioneers  of  pedagogy  as  a  science  built  it  upon  a  social 
foundation.  Similarly,  their  successors  never  lost  sight  of  its 
relations  to  society  and  the  State.  The  Didactica  which  took 
its  rise  in  the  iyth  century,  endeavored  not  only  to  make  teach- 
ing and  learning  less  onerous  and  more  profitable,  but  also  to 
regenerate  education  in  all  its  branches  and  thereby  to  advance 
the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  Christian  State.  Wolfgang 
Ratke  (d.  1635)  with  his  reforms  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  to 
establish  and  preserve  one  language,  one  government,  and  one 
religion  throughout  the  whole  empire.  Cristoph  Helwig  (d.  1617) 
and  Joachim  Jung  (d.  1657)  in  their  report  on  Ratke's  sug- 
gestions declare  that  the  art  of  teaching  is  "more  necessary  and 
more  useful  to  the  art  of  government  than  all  other  arts,  because 
it  is  by  teaching,  as  all  philosophers  and  political  economists 
admit,  that  the  highest  and  final  end  of  governing  must  be 
obtained."  This  tendency  is  still  more  evident  in  the  writings 
of  Amos  Comenius  (1592-1670),  who  describes  "Didactica"  as 
artificium  omnes  omnia  docendi  and  as  the  "universal  art  to 
found  schools  for  the  teaching  of  all  things."  As  workshops 
encourage  the  trades,  as  churches  foster  religion,  as  courts  ot 
justice  safeguard  the  law,  so  schools  should  engender,  enlighten, 
increase  education— "the  li^ht  of  wisdom" — and  "transmit  it  to 
the  whole  body  of  the  race",  thus  performing  their  share  of  the 
work  that  results  from  a  mutual  relationship  analogous  to  that 
existing  between  the  members  of  the  living  body.  What  the 
stomach  is  for  the  body,  says  Comenius,  that  the  "collegium 
didacticum"  (a  board  of  scholars  who  are  supposed  to  watch 
over  the  curriculum  of  the  schools)  is  for  the  educational  or- 

1  Aristotle,  Pol.,  VIII,  i,  p.   1336. 

2  Eth.  Nic.,  X,  10,  p.  1180. 

3  Cf.  Guhrauer,  Joachim  Jungius  und  sein  Zeitaller,   1850. 

4  Didactica  magna,  8,  8. 


24  INTRODUCTION 

ganism.1  The  same  writer  repeatedly  compares  the  school  sys- 
tem with  a  printing  shop,  that  is,  he  conceives  instruction  as  a 
process  of  reproducing  souls  and  the  art  of  teaching  as  a  sort  of 
intellectual  typography;  he  even  coined  a  new  term,  didacho- 
graphia,  to  express  this  idea.2  Still,  he  recognized  that  the 
schools  represent  but  a  fraction  of  the  educational  and  cultural 
agencies,  and  that  education  is  not  completed  in  school.  He 
pays  due  attention  to  the  " schola  materna,"  by  which  the  child 
receives  its  first  informal  instruction  at  home.3  Nor  does  he 
lose  sight  of  the  instruction  given  in  workshops  and  artists' 
studios,  but  rather  chooses  the  old  and  tried  traditions  living 
in  these  institutions  as  a  norm  for  the  formal  instruction  of  the 
schools.4  Comenius  also  devised  a  system  of  self-education,  a 
"pansophic  library,"  which  was  to  constitute  a  "seminaHum 
eruditionis  universalis. " 

3.  The  ambitious  dreams  of  Comenius  and  his  school  could 
not  be  realized,  because  these  writers,  despite  the  breadth  of 
their  view,  failed  to  recognize  the  importance  of  history  and 
psychology  in  education.  The  rationalists  of  that  period'  were 
too  subjective;  they  limited  their  studies  to  the  individual  as 
such  and  disregarded  his  relations  to  society,  present  and  past, 
and  consequently  conceived  of  education  as  a  discipline  con- 
cerned only  with  individuals.  They  never  went  beyond  the  re- 
lation of  teacher  and  pupil  to  examine  the  larger  social  factors 
of  education.  Though  solitary  voices  clamored  for  a  public,  in 
opposition  to  exclusively  private  education  then  in  vogue,  and 
though  the  i8th  century  really  gave  birth  to  the  view  that  the 
education  of  the  lower  classes  is  a  matter  of  public  concern, 
yet  not  even  this  novel  departure,  was  an  adequate  corrective 
of  the  extremely  individualistic  conception  of  education,  for  the 
resulting  State  System  of  education  recognized  no  public  or  col- 
lective educational  activity  beside  that  of  the  State.  Now,  the 
social  character  of  education  cannot  be  understood  from  the 
political  viewpoint  alone.  While  it  would  be  unfair  to  find 
fault  with  the  Greeks  for  having  failed  to  distinguish  between 
the  social  and  the  political  aspect  of  education  because  their 
national  customs,  their  religious  institutions  and  various  forms 
of  social  organization  appeared  to  them  as  inseparably  united 

1  Ib.  31,  15. 

2  Ib.  32  and  Opera  didactica  omnia,  Amstelodami,  1657,  IV,  p.  85  ff. 

3  Didactica  Magna,  28. 

4  Didactica  Magna,  21,  21;  Meth.  ling,  nov.,  Opp.  D.O.,  II,  p.  103-129  et  al. 

5  Prodramus  Pansophiae,  Opp.  D.O.,  I,  p.  404  ff. 


INTRODUCTION  25 

with  the  political  commonwealth,  we  must  admit  that  the  po- 
litical educationists  of  the  i8th  and  ipth  centuries  were  guilty 
of  onesidedness  when  they  regarded  education  as  the  business 
of  the  State,  and  entirely  ignored  those  other  social  and  histor- 
ical forces — the  Church,  society,  and  custom — to  which  system- 
atized education  really  owed  its  being.  The  renewal  of  the  life 
of  the  social  organism  cannot  be  properly  understood  from  the 
viewpoint  exclusively  of  the"*State,  because  the  latter  is  but  one 
of  the  factors  that  constitute  the  social  organism.  The  ideals 
of  education  owe  their  existence  to  the  treasures  of  civilization, 
which  are  safeguarded,  or  at  most  controlled,  but  not  in  any 
sense  created,  by  the  State.  The  State  can  organize,  but  the 
materials  necessary  for  this  process  are  derived  from  sources 
entirely  beyond  governmental  sway.  But  the  age  of  rational- 
ism, which  recognized  only  the  dictates  of  reason,  which  held 
society  to  be  the  product  of  a  contract,  which  believed  that 
faith  and  morality  were  the  invention  of  wise  men,  was  ob- 
viously not  equal  to  this  exalted  conception  of  education  and 
consequently  ignored  that  part  of  the  educational  field  which, 
while  it  transcends  the  individual,  yet  does  not  come  within 
the  purview  of  the  State. 

The  social  view  of  education  having  been  narrowed  down  to 
a  purely  political  view,  it  was  no  longer  able  to  supplement  the 
individual  view,  and  the  science  of  education  showed  a  glaring 
defect,  which  had  to  be  supplied,  especially  since  the  political 
sciences,  with  the  aid  of  corrected  principles  gained  from  his- 
torical studies,  began  to  deal  with  education.  The  theory  of 
Lorenz  von  Stein,  in  his  Verwaltungslehre^  which  is  far  more 
comprehensive  and  profound  than  those  of  earlier  writers,  as 
Pcelitz,  Aretin,  and  Mohl,  may  serve  to  remind  pedagogy  of 
its  deficiencies.  Stein's  starting-point  is  the  concept  of  intel- 
lectual good,  which  he  defines  as  "knowledge  and  skill  in  as 
much  as  they  are  a  product  of  mental  work  and  economic  utili- 
zation, and  an  element  in  the  production  of  new  goods. "  This 
process  of  production  Stein  calls  education — a  concept  which  is 
at  first  restricted  to  the  individual,  but  soon  transcends  this 
limit,  because  every  individual  needs  the  co-operation  of  others 
in  acquiring  an  education.  The  collective  activity  devoted  to 
the  educative  process  is  termed  the  system  of  education.2  It 
is  an  organic  element  of  the  national  life  of  a  people  which  comes 

1  Verwaltungslehre,   1868,  Vol.  V,  p.  xix. 

2  Ib.,  p.  8. 


26  INTRODUCTION 

into  being  and  asserts  itself  by  its  own  power.  The  State  does 
not  create  it,  but  finds  it  ready  made.  The  need,  however,  of 
directing  the  stream  of  intellectual  life  along  definite  channels 
brings  about  an  active  interference  by  the  conscious  will  of  the 
community  as  a  whole  as  expressed  in  the  State.  In  other 
words,  the  State  takes  hold  of,  and  applies  its  own  principles 
to,  education,  and  we  have  a  public  system  of  educational  agen- 
cies governed  by  well-defined  laws  and  regulations.1  In  this 
public  system  Stein  recognizes  three  distinct  departments: 
i.  The  primary  or  common  school  system;  2.  Preparatory,  pro- 
fessional, and  special  schools  for  vocational  training;  and  3.  The 
agencies  for  the  general  education  of  the  people,  which  embrace 
the  internal  momenta  connecting  the  various  professions.  Such 
institutions  are:  academies,  libraries,  museums,  theatres,  and 
their  common  organ — the  press.  Stein  traces  each  of  these  de- 
partments in  their  course  of  development  and  describes  their 
organization  in  the  principal  countries  of  Europe.  Stein  steers 
free  of  the  superficial  view  of  his  predecessors  that  education 
and  its  organs  are  the  creation  of  the  State,  and  acknowledges 
that  the  work  of  education  is  autonomous.  He  also  avoids  the 
error  of  subordinating  the  science  of  education  to  political  sci- 
ence, but  assigns  to  it  its  own  proper  field  of  research,  which 
he  defines  as  the  establishment  of  "the  principles  and  laws  that 
govern  the  transmission  of  knowledge  to  the  individual  through 
the  co-operation  of  others."  Political  science,  in  his  opinion, 
is  limited  "to  controlling  the  external  form  and  order  of  the 
various  branches,  organs,  and  agencies  of  education,  by  means 
of  which  government  fulfills  the  duties  incumbent  upon  the 
community  to  provide  for  the  education  of  its  citizens." 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  inquire  in  how  far  these  views  of 
Stein  must  be  modified  before  they  can  be  accepted  as  the  ground- 
work of  a  satisfactory  system  of  education.  One  thing  is  quite 
obvious:  his  division  of  the  educational  field  cannot  be  accepted 
as  definitive.  Were  we  to  accept  Stein's  definition,  we  should 
have  to  postulate  a  medium  by  which  the  science  of  education 
is  enabled  to  enter  into  proper  relations  with  political  science, 
for  it  is  necessary  to  ascertain  how  the  individual  pursuit  of 
knowledge  becomes  the  business  of  the  whole  community,  how 
a  system  of  public  education  can  grow  out  of  united  individual 
efforts,  and  what  is  the  nature  of  the  influence  exercised  upon 


1  Ib.,  p.   12  and  p.  xix. 

2  Ib.,  pp.  xix  and  xx. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

it  by  national,  social,  literary,  scientific,  and  religious  factors, 
before  it  is  sufficiently  developed  to  receive  a  fixed  form  at  the 
hands  of  the  State.  Stein  admits  that  such  an  inquiry  is  neces- 
sary, but  fails  to  assign  to  it  its  proper  place.  Evidently  this 
function  belongs  to  the  science  of  education,  no£  to  political 
science;  and  Stein  rendered  a  signal  service  by  showing  how  far 
the  former  must  extend  its  scope  before  it  approaches  the  do- 
main of  politics  and  jurisprudence  and  is  in  a  position  to  co- 
operate with  these  sciences. 

4.  While  the  science  of  education  is  correlated  to  other  and 
larger  fields,  we  do  not  mean  to  force  upon  it  the  political  point 
of  view,  for  this  were  tantamount  to  neglecting  a  great  part  of 
its  sphere.  Nor  do  we  intend  so  to  extend  its  scope  as  to  render 
it  shallow  and  to  create  the  belief  that  education,  though  it 
brings  great  numbers  under  its  influence,  lacks  a  subject  and 
an" object  as  well  as  a  particular  aim.  This  naive  view  is  enter- 
tained by  those  who  consider  it  education  to  keep  the  children, 
by  fair  means  or  foul,  in  a  tolerable  state  of  order;  or  by  those 
who  consider  it  real  culture  to  force  intellectual  data  down  the 
pupil's  throat.  The  sophist  whom  Plato  cites  in  his  Protagoras 
gives  expression  to  this  ingenuous  view  when  he  says  that  a 
single  individual  can  no  more  be  held  responsible  for  training 
others  to  virtue  than  a  single  teacher  may  be  credited  with 
teaching  boys  how  to  speak  Greek,  or  a  single  master-mechanic 
may  be  regarded  as  an  instructor  of  the  young  generation  in 
the  trades.1  This  conception  of  education  is  so  vague  that  it 
assigns  even  to  impersonal  agencies  the  work  of  educating  the 
young:  if  the  boy  is  a  failure  in  school  and  appears  to  his  teach- 
ers a  good-for-nothing  fellow,  then  some  parents  will  console 
themselves  with  the  thought,  "Life  will  teach  him,"  or,  "neces- 
sity and  want  have  educated  many  who  were  the  despair  of 
both  teachers  and  parents."  In  opposing  these  vague  notions, 
the  educationists  of  the  so-called  Era  of  Enlightenment  (Ration- 
alism), headed  by  Locke,  rendered  a  valuable  service  to  edu- 
cation. Locke  demanded  that  education  be  individual  and  per- 
sonal, that  its  end  and  object  is  "a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body"; 
that  the  teacher  must  be  left  free  to  employ  educational  means 
and  agencies  in,  accordance  with  the  needs  of  his  pupils;  that  he 
must  respect  the  individual  character  of  each.  Quite  naturally 
Locke  was  an  opponent  of  public  school  education.  Rousseau 
developed  this  theory  into  a  stubborn  individualism,  which  de- 

1   Plato,  Prolog.,  p.  337. 


28  INTRODUCTION 

stroys  the  bonds  connecting  the  individual  with  the  commu- 
nity, present  and  past,  and  isolates  education  in  a  manner  that 
runs  counter  to  nature  and  historical  development.  His  revo- 
lutionary doctrines  throw  a  new  and  glaring  light  on  the  sub- 
jective and  individual  factors  of  education.  Some  of  his  de- 
mands— for  instance,  to  study  the  child's  nature,  to  train  his 
senses,  to  make  his  childish  experiences  the  starting-point  of  his 
own  co-operation  with  his  teachers,  to  distinguish  between  the 
scientific  and  the  didactic  method — revealed  a  deep  psycholog- 
ical insight,  and,  while  pointing  out  specific  problems,  encour- 
aged the  discovery  of  new  methods.1 

Of  the  followers  of  Locke  and  Rousseau,  Trapp  was  the  first 
to  suggest,  in  his  Versuch  einer  Padagogik  (1780),  that  psychology 
be  made  the  main  source  for  pedagogical  knowledge.  Though 
he  himself  did  not  enter  deeply  into  the  subject,  he  pointed  out 
the  connection  existing  between  psychology  and  pedagogy.  To 
have  fused  these  two  sciences  is  the  glory  of  Herbart,  who  added 
ethics  (though  of  a  purely  individualistic  character),  as  another 
fundamental  science,  and  treated  pedagogy  systematically  ac- 
cording to  the  deductive  method.  According  to  Herbart  the 
fundamental  relation  is  the  mutual  relation  existing  between 
teacher  and  pupil.2  His  immediate  purpose  is  to  perfect  edu- 
cation by  the  aid  of  science  so  as  to  make  it  an  art.  His  final 
end  is  to  make  the  pupil  virtuous,  to  enkindle  in  his  soul  varied 
interests,  and  to  ground  his  moral  life  on  a  strong  character. 
Herbart  warns  the  teacher  expressly  against  fitting  his  pupil  for 
any  special  profession  or  social  task.3  His  categories  are:  gov- 
ernment, instruction,  and  discipline.  He  gives  definite  rules 
concerning  the  method,  content,  and  course  of  instruction,  and 
the  use  and  method  of  discipline.  Psychology  being  his  auxil- 
iary science,  he  devotes  special  care,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the 
intermediate  steps  connecting  knowledge  and  volition — interest, 
sympathy,  attention,  etc.— and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  means 

1  We  agree  with  Herbart  when  he  says  (Padagogische  Schriften,  ed.  by  Will- 
mann,  1873-75,  II,  240),  of  the  educational  systems  of  Locke  and  Rousseau:   "This 
point  of  view  was  necessary    for  differentiating  properly  between  ethics  and  ped- 
agogy," but  we  must  protest  against  his  assertion  that,  "Had  this  not  been  done, 
the  true  nature  of  pedagogy  would  never  have  been  revealed."     This  is  an  ex- 
aggerated estimate  of  the  importance  of  the  new  doctrine.     In  his  earlier  years, 
Herbart  had  more  correct  views  of  Locke  and  Rousseau.     Cf.  Padagogische  Schrif- 
ten, I.  336,  506,  and  II,  241,  258. 

2  Cf.  The  Science-of  Education,  Translated  by  H.  M.  and  E.  Felkin,  London, 
1892,  p.  92;  Padagogische  Schriften,  I,  349  and  II,  208. 

3  Cf.  the  resume  in  my  edition  of  Herbart's  educational  writings,  II,  671-688. 


INTRODUCTION  2<) 

by  which  these  manifold  influences  and  impulses  are  fused  into 
one  harmonious  whole.1  Besides  his  psychological  treatises, 
which  deal  with  the  conditions  and  means  for  raising  pedagogy 
to  a  higher  scientific  plane,  Herbart  has  written  others  of  a 
purely  theoretical  character  treating  of  the  individual  recep- 
tivity of  different  pupils,  the  educational  content  of  various 
studies,  and  the  efficiency  of  educational  institutions.2  What 
he  says  on  the  subject  of  studying  and  developing  character  is 
very  stimulating  and  instructive.8 

Herbart's  pedagogy  marks  the  highest  point  reached  by  that 
school  which  regards  education  from  the  standpoint  of  individ- 
ualistic (in  opposition  to  social)  ethics.  Theodor  Waitz  neglects 
the  ethical  point  of  view  in  favor  of  the  psychological.4  Fr. 
Ed.  Beneke  has  no  adequate  conception  of  the  significant  re- 
lations established  by  education  between  man  and  man,  to 
which  Herbart  devoted  such  close  attention.5  In  England  the 
science  of  education  has  not  developed  in  the  same  measure  as 
in  Germany.  Herbert  Spencer  never  got  beyond  a  sort  of  mod- 
ernized Philanthropinism.  Alexander  Bain  offers  a  few  help- 
ful remarks,  but  conceives  the  idea  of  personality  too  narrowly 
to  recompense  us  for  his  extreme  individualism.6  His  strictures 
passed  on  John  Stuart  Mill's  definition  of  education  show  how 
little  he  understood  the  sociological  method.  In  an  address  de- 
livered at  his  inauguration  as  Rector  of  St.  Andrew's  University, 
Mill  had  said:  "Education  is  the  culture  which  each  generation 
purposely  gives  to  those  who  are  to  be  its  successors,  in  order 
to  qualify  them  for  at  least  keeping  up,  and  if  possible,  for 
raising,  the  level  of  improvement  which  has  been  attained."7 
Bain  says  of  this  definition,  that  it  is  "grandiose  rather  than 
scientific"  and  that  "nothing  is  to  be  got  out  of  it".8  He  re- 
gards Mill's  fruitful  idea  as  over-scientific.  We  on  our  part 
must  confess  that  Bain's  definition  of  education  as  "The  arts 
and  methods  employed  by  the  schoolmaster,"9  appears  to  us 
as  under-scientific. 

1  The  Science  of  Education,  p.  84  ff.,    and    The  Application  of  Psychology  to  the 
Science  of  Education,  translated  by  B.C.   MulKner,  New  York,   1898. 

2  In  The  Application  of  Psychology  to  Education. 

3  The  Science  of  Education. 

4  Erziehungs-  und   Unterrichtslehre,   1835   (new  ed.   Berlin,   1876). 

5  Education:  Intellectual,  Moral,  Physical,   i86"i. 

6  Education  as  a  Science.     New  York,  1879. 

7  Dissertations  and  Discussions:  Political,  Philosophical,  and  Historical.  New 
York,  1 874,  Vol.  IV,  p.  333. 

8  Education  as  a  Science,  p.  6.  9  Ibid. 


3O  INTRODUCTION 

5.  The  concepts  of  education  have  gained  much,  particularly 
in  depth,  by  studying  pedagogy  from  the  standpoint  of  the  in- 
dividual; and  as  we  enter  the  social  field,  we  must  be  careful 
lest  we  forfeit  this  gain.  The  path  leading  to  this  larger  field 
must  pass  through  the  field  of  individual  pedagogy;  and  as  our 
view  becomes  enlarged  and  takes  in  the  vast  complex  of  col- 
lective educational  efforts,  we  must  not  overlook  the  individual- 
ethical  and  psychological  conditions  underlying  them. 

If  anyone  doubts  the  need  of  studying  the  social  forces  in 
education  and  of  enlarging  the  view  to  embrace  the  collective 
efforts  made  in  its  behalf,  let  him  consider  that  even  so  com- 
prehensive an  individualism  as  Herbart's  cannot  take  in  all  the 
facts.  True,  the  final  end  of  education  is  to  produce  a  certain 
inner  state,  but  what  constitutes  this  state  and  co-operates  in 
creating  it  cannot  be  compressed  into  an  abstract  formula. 
Education  always  involves  a  transmission  and  an  assimilation 
of  ideas  and  principles  and  presupposes  an  intellectual  and 
moral  vital  content  as  well  as  certain  collective  agencies  that 
are  the  bearers  of  this  content  and  possess  the  power  to  bring 
about  its  assimilation.  The  knowledge  that  forms  the  object 
of  educational  activity  is  not  a  mere  instrument  to  be  employed 
at  will,  but  a  treasure,  which  has  been  handed  down  the  ages 
and  must  be  scrupulously  guarded.  The  forms,  too,  which  the 
educative  process  assumes,  are  closely  interwoven  with  other 
social  and  historical  agencies,  so  that  no  deductive  process  can 
hope  to  draw  forth  more  than  a  few  of  the  many  interlacing 
threads,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  web  a  mess  so  much  the  more 
hopeless  of  disentanglement  because  of  the  wrong  attempts 
made  to  that  end.  The  art  of  education  may  mark  one  of  the 
highest  points  of  pedagogical  activity,  but  it  by  no  means  in- 
cludes the  whole  field.  Wherever  one  generation  is  engaged  in 
raising  another  to  its  own  level,  wherever  a  father  faithfully 
labors  to  train  his  boy,  wherever  a  mother  prays  for  life,  health 
and  purity  for  her  children,  there  is  education;  and  often  its 
half-unconscious  strength  transcends  all  art.  The  relation  be- 
tween two  individuals  is  indeed  basic,  so  far  as  education  is 
concerned;  but  not  more  so,  be  it  remembered,  than  the  relation 
between  two  generations.  In  order  fully  to  grasp  the  scope  of 
education  as  a  science,  it  is  necessary  to  combine  the  individual 
and  the  social  views,  for  only  in  this  way  can  we  realize  the 
richness  and  depth  of  the  personal  relation  without  losing  sight 
of  the  various  social  and  historical  interrelations.  The  nature 
of  the  problem  may  be  stated,  somewhat  paradoxically,  thus: 


INTRODUCTION  3! 

Without  understanding  education  in  all  its  aspects  we  cannot 
understand  the  nature  of  education;  and,  conversely,  the  latter 
is  the  key  for  understanding  the  former.  The  processes  and 
activities  occurring  between  individuals  can  be  understood  only 
in  the  light  of  the  general  process  of  assimilation  of  the  young 
to  their  elders,  which  collective  activity  in  its  turn  must  be 
viewed  as  the  product  of  a  fusion  of  innumerable  individual 
processes  and  activities.  The  science  of  education  may  with 
equal  propriety  be  defined  as  a  science  dealing  with  the  whole 
system  of  education,  or  as  a  science  dealing  with  the  acquisition 
of  an  education  by  the  individual.  If  we  adopt  the  latter  de- 
finition, we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  acquisition  of  an  edu- 
cation is  always  conditioned  by  the  existing  system,  in  which  it 
has,  so  to  say,  taken  substantive  form,  and  that  neither  the 
ends  nor  the  subject-matter  nor  the  means  of  instruction  can 
ever  be  autonomously  determined  by  the  individual.  .  If  we 
adopt  the  former  definition  of  education,  as  coextensive  with 
the  system  of  educational  agencies,  then  we  must  not  forget 
that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  merely  describing  the  shell  or  case 
that  has  been  erected  around  the  work  of  education,  but  like- 
wise of  appraising  the  forces  active  within  this  system — which 
in  their  last  analysis,  are  traceable  to  individual  endeavor. 
We  must  in  the  first  case  proceed  synthetically  until  we  arrive 
at  an  understanding  of  the  collective  agencies;  and  in  the  second 
case,  we  must  follow  the  analytical  method  till  we  arrive  at  the 
individual  processes.  To  express  the  twofold  problem  involved, 
the  definition  ought  really  to  read:  Education  is  the  science 
treating  of  all  the  activities  that  are  directed  toward  the  moral 
and  intellectual  assimilation  of  the  young,  as  performed  by  and 
upon  individuals,  upon  the  basis  of  >an  existing  system. 

6.  The  fact  that  neither  the  individual  nor  the  social  prin- 
ciple is  in  itself  sufficient  to  supply  a  starting-point  and  coign 
of  vantage,  because  each  continually  points  to,  and,  as  it  were, 
conceals  itself  behind  the  other,  is  a  distinct  difficulty,  but  it  is 
one  that  is  not  peculiar  to  the  science  of  education,  but  com- 
mon to  all  the  sciences  that  concern  themselves  with  the  moral 
order  both  in  general  and  in  particular.  The  State  rests  on  the 
political  consciousness  of  its  subjects — the  ethos  of  its  citizens — 
and  must  be  explained  in  the  light  of  the  same;  but  the  ethos 
of  the  citizens  is  itself  a  product  of  the  national  life — both  its 
root  and  its  blossom.  The  public  market  is  an  immense  mech- 
anism whose  motor  forces  (and  therefore  also  the  reasons  for  its 
existence)  lie  in  the  different  economic  needs  of  individual  men; 


32  INTRODUCTION 

but  take  away  the  market,  and  you  will  have  neither  business 
nor  business  needs,  for  the  father  of  these  is  commerce,  which 
takes  shape  and  form  in  the  market.  To  solve  the  problem  of 
language  you  must  study  man,  who  employs  it;  but  what  is 
man  without  language,  which  is  furnished  him  by  society,  and 
how  could  he  be  understood  unless  considered  as  a  partaker  in 
the  common  gift  which  itself  must  be  explained  by  his  individ- 
ual soul  activity?  Customs  and  institutions,  the  spirit  of  the 
age  and  of  a  nation,  are  objective  forces  that  impress  upon  the 
individual  a  stamp  that  cannot  be  deciphered  without  these 
same  factors;  and  still,  upon  closer  view,  we  discover  that  they 
are  little  more  than  phenomena  of  consciousness  and  exist  no- 
where outside  of  the  consciousness  of  individuals,  and  what 
was  to  have  been  explained  by  them  must  be  accepted  as  the 
principle  for  their  own  explanation. 

The  two-sided  nature  of  these  problems  forces  itself  upon 
both  classes  of  thinkers — those  who  by  their  philosophical  pre- 
possessions are  inclined  to  study  the  collective  forces,  as  well  as 
those  who  by  preference  study  the  individual.  In  studying  the 
fitness  of  things,  which  he  considered  the  main  purpose  of  his 
ideal  State,  Plato  proceeds  from  the  fitness  discovered  in  the 
common  life  of  the  race,  hoping  that  this  fitness  proper  to  the 
larger  field  would  assist  in  explaining  the  fitness  of  the  mind 
and  actions  of  the  individual.1  But  in  the  course  of  his  inquiry 
he  recognized  that  society  and  the  individual  must  mutually 
explain  each  other,  and  in  this  sense  compares  them  to  two 
pieces  of  wood,  which  must  be  rubbed  together  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  spark.2  Herbart  arrives  at  the  same  conclusion  from 
the  opposite  direction.  His  individualistic  psychology  leads  him 
to  confess  that  man  cannot  be  understood  except  in  connection 
with  society  and  history,  though  these  two  factors  themselves 
are  products  of  the  joint  efforts  of  individuals,  so  that  it  is  "not 
the  straight  and  direct  road,  but  the  zigzag  path,  running  this 
way  and  that,  in  a  slow  onward  course,  that  will  lead  to  the 
correct  interpretation  of  psychological  facts  ".3  Had  Herbart  ap- 
plied this  truth  to  ethics  and  pedagogy,  he  would  have  found 
himself  compelled  to  give  to  these  sciences  a  form  differing  from 
the  one  they  hold  in  his  system.4 

1  Rep.,  II,  p.  368. 

2  Ib,  IV,  p.  435- 

3  Gesammelte  Werke,  edited  by  Hartenstein,  VI,  21;  cf.  IX,  185. 

4  In  my  edition  of  Herbart 's  educational  writings,  I  have  indicated  the  pas- 
sages where  it  is  necessary  to  go  beyond  the  individualistic  conception,  and  take 


INTRODUCTION  33 

7.  Modern  research  has  adopted  the  methods  recommended 
by  Plato  and  Herbart:  by  employing  Plato's  rubbing  process, 
it  has  thrown  new  light  on  old  problems,  and  by  following  Her- 
bart's  zigzag  path  it  has  come  closer  to  an  understanding  of 
the  moral  world.  The  demand  that  the.  individual  and  society, 
the  microcosm  of  personal  and  the  macrocosm  of  social  and 
historical  life,  should  be  made  to  explain  each  other,  has  come 
to  be  recognized,  at  least  among  German  scholars,  as  a  method- 
ological principle.  This  principle  has  a  twofold  importance  for 
the  development  of  the  science  of  education;  it  supplies  it  with 
models  showing  how  the  individual  and  social  views  are  to  be 
carried  out,  and  furnishes  a  large  number  of  new  and  valuable 
data,  the  result  of  the  researches  in  allied  sciences. 

This  new  principle  has  been  successfully  applied  in  the 
ethnological  field  by  M.  Lazarus  and  H.  Steinthal,  who  have 
established  a  mutual  relationship  between  psychology  on  the  one 
hand  and  philology,  ethnology,  and  history  on  the  other.  Psy- 
chology has  thus  broadened  its  horizon,  while  the  other  three 
sciences  and  the  moral  sciences  in  general  have  acquired  a  deep- 
er and  more  exact  understanding  of  their  respective  problems 
and  much  valuable  stimulation.  Education  should  establish 
similar  relations  to  psychology  and  ethnology,  for  the  fields  of 
the  two  sciences  are  practically  inseparable:  the  former  examines 
into  the  psychological  processes  of  education  and  the  latter  into 
the  historico-social  forms  of  these  processes;  and  beside  this 
formal  analogy,  there  is  a  connecting  bond  in  the  very  content 
of  the  .two  disciplines.  Of  the  organizations  that  together  make 
up  the  social  organism,  the  nation  is  the  first  and  the  strongest, 
as  it  is  prepared  directly  by  nature;  and  when  there  is  question 
of  reconstructing  the  social  life,  the  nation  is  the  first  fact  to  be 
considered.  The  national  type  is  transmitted  by  heredity,  and 
the  intellectual  possessions  of  the  nation — its  language,  litera- 
ture, customs,  and  beliefs — are  the  principal  means  of  conscious 
and  unconscious  assimilation  on  the  part  of  the  young.  Nay, 
we  may  say  that  the  youth  of  a  country  belong  to  the  nation. 
The  family  speaks  of  its  children,  society  of  its  members,  but 

regard  to  the  two-sided  nature  of  the  problem.  Cf.  Padagogische  Schrijten,  I, 
XXXV  and  II,  287.  The  practical  philosophy  of  Waitz  underwent  a  similar  change. 
Waitz  had  originally  based  his  system,  in  an  abstract  way,  on  the  individual,  but 
by  and  by  he  allowed  more  importance  to  sociological  principles,  and  finally  ar- 
rived at  the  study  of  anthropology,  which  he  undertook  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing an  empirical  and  social  basis  for  his  system  of  ethics.  Cf.  my  edition  of  Waitz's 
Pddagogik,  p.  LX  ff. 


34  INTRODUCTION 

the  young  people  bear  the  name  of  the  nation  to  which  they 
belong — Greek,  Roman,  etc.  Many  agencies  co-operate  with 
the  national  spirit  in  impressing  upon  the  educational  system 
of  each  country  a  distinctive  type;  but  the  spirit  of  the  respec- 
tive nation  is  always  the  most  powerful.  Each  nation  has  its 
own  peculiar  system  of  education,  and  if  the  education  of  cer- 
tain classes  of  society  is  somewhat  the  same  in  all  countries, 
yet  there  are  always  clearly  pronounced  national  differences. 
The  truth  of  this  observation  is  borne  out  by  the  comparative 
study  of  different  national  systems  of  education.  Thus  Wiese's 
Deutsche  Briefe  uber  englische  Erziehung  show  that  the  character 
of  the  English  people  asserts  itself,  often  in  an  astounding  way, 
in  their  schools,  from  the  principles  underlying  the  system  itself 
down  to  the  daily  routine  of  the  schoolroom  and  the  customs, 
good  and  bad,  of  the  pupils. 

The  psychological  analysis  of  the  soul  of  nations,  the  study 
of  their  psychic  types,  the  investigation  of  the  factors  that 
constitute  nationality  and  their  mutual  relations — all  of  which 
tasks  modern  ethnography  has  undertaken  with  considerable 
success — greatly  benefit  the  science  of  education;  and  even  an 
only  occasional  ray  of  light  falling  thence  on  cognate  subjects 
is  of  some  service.  In  return  for  this  service  education  assists 
the  researches  of  ethnology.  To  solve  the  problem  of  the  origin 
of  language  and  popular  customs  it  is  helpful  to  observe  the 
child's  awakening  to  the  consciousness  of  language  and  morality. 
Scholars  have  not  been  blind  to  this  fact,  but  they  cannot  arrive 
at  satisfactory  results  until  the  educationists  have  elaborated 
and  organized  the  materials  belonging  to  this  field.  The  science 
of  education  must  furnish  what  Francis  Bacon  would  call  the 
" instantice  ostensivce"  for  the  immense  field  of  psychical  agen- 
cies, which  we  have  described  (p.  19)  as  involuntary  assimilation, 
and  which  are  of  far-reaching  influence  upon  a  nation's  life.  It 
was  left  to  education  to  draw  the  line  of  strict  demarcation 
between  conscious  and  unconscious  influences  and  to  make  of 
the  former  a  field  of  special  investigation. 

The  science  of  education,  if  its  scope  is  sufficiently  broad- 
ened, can  furnish  ethnology  with  a  new  category,  the  category 
of  education  itself.  The  educational  system  of  a  nation,  com- 
prising all  that  makes  for  general  knowledge  and  skill,  is  a  spe- 
cial department  and  the  manner  of  its  cultivation  bears  testi- 
mony to  a  nation's  creative  genius.  Though  education  depends 
on  language,  literature,  science,  art,  religion,  and  other  factors, 
it  is  coextensive  with  none  of  these.  The  genius  of  the  Greek 


INTRODUCTION  35 

nation  appears  in  its  paideia  no  less  than  in  its  literature,  sci- 
ence, and  art;  and  paideia  implies  more  than  merely  the  form 
for  sharing  these  intellectual  treasures,  for,  though  it  derives  its 
content  from  them,  it  has  a  principle  of  its  own  for  converting 
multitudinous  knowledge  into  a  harmonious  whole,  and  this 
principle  is  independent  of  the  content. 

The  Humanism  of  the  I5th  century,  which  was  at  first  a 
purely  intellectual  movement,  but  subsequently  became  a  power- 
ful vital  force  in  Italy  and  the  other  countries  of  Europe,  was 
identical  neither  with  science,  nor  with  poetry  and  art,  though 
its  representatives  appeared  alternately  as  scholars,  poets,  or 
artists.  It  was  a  thing  of  protean  shape,  as  Burckhardt  has. 
described  it  so  masterfully,1  which,  after  passing  through  vari- 
ous modifications,  became  firmly  fixed  in  modern  education. 
These  two  examples  (Humanism  and  the  paideia  of  the  Greeks) 
show  that  ethnology  would  do  well  to  include  education  among 
such  creations  of  the  national  spirit  as  language,  mythology, 
poetry,  art,  and  science. 

8.  The  science  of  education  must  furthermore  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  researches  in  moral  statistics,  which  received  a  new 
impetus  when  Alexander  von  Ottingen  made  social  ethics  the 
basis  for  his  statistical  studies,  trying  to  prove  that  a  harmony 
exists  between  the  collective  movements  of  a  community  and 
individual  liberty.2  The  statistics  dealing  with  the  polarity  and 
equilibrium  of  the  sexes,  with  marriages  and  births,  furnish  a 
broad  empirical  basis  for  the  study  of  the  process  of  social  re- 
construction, and  they  are  particularly  well  adapted  to  drive 
home  the  idea  of  the  solidarity  of  society  and  the  succeeding 
generations  of  the  human  race,  for  they  demonstrate  the  won- 
derful harmony  existing  between  the  natural  and  the  moral 
order,  between  necessity  and  liberty.  It  has  been  observed 
that  after  wars  or  other  catastrophes  causing  a  great  loss  of 
men,  the  births  of  male  children  increase  beyond  the  normal 
number,  whereas  their  death  rate  decreases,  as  though  all  forces 
of  the  social  body  set  to  work  to  supply  the  wounded  organ 
with  what  it  needs.  This  phenomenon,  known  as  "the  law  of 
compensation"  is  a  veritable  marvel,  a  ^av/aatrroj',  which  gives 
us  a  glimpse,  though  faint,  of  the  natural  forces  engaged  in  the 
reconstruction  of  the  social  body. 

1  ].  Burckhardt,  The  Civilization  of  the  Renaissance  in   Italy,  translated  by 
Middlemore,  London,  1898. 

2  A.  v.  Ottingen,   Die  Moralstatistik  und  die  christliche  Sittenlehre,  Erlangen, 
1868. 


36  INTRODUCTION 

The  mortality  statistics  for  the  different  ages  enable  us  to 
obtain  an  idea  of  the  numerical  strength  of  a  generation  in  its 
successive  stages.  The  process  may  be  illustrated  by  the  simile 
of  a  tree,  broad  at  the  base,  but  narrowing  down  immediately 
to  three-fourths  of  its  thickness — one-fourth  of  the  children 
dying  in  their  first  year — growing  thinner  gradually  after  the 
first  year,  till  after  twenty  years  the  proper  thickness  is  one-half 
of  that  at  the  base.  This  is  not  a  perfect  picture  of  the  recon- 
struction of  social  life,  still  it  will  serve  as  an  outline.  To  supply 
the  material  needed  for  a  complete  study,  we  should  lay  under 
tribute  the  school  statistics,  for  they  show  the  paths  which  a 
generation  follows  in  acquiring  an  education,  and  allow  us  to 
follow  a  generation  up  to  certain  stages  of  its  development. 
But  as  yet  we  lack  a  complete  picture  portraying  all  the  differ- 
entiations in  education  and  the  professions  and  representing  all 
the  forces,  great  and  small,  that  furnish  new  blood  to  the  social 
organism. 

A  further  gain  for  the  science  of  education  may  be  expected 
from  the  attempts  of  statisticians  to  measure  the  intellectual 
activity  of  communities.  Their  figures  are  the  ranging-poles 
for  measuring  these  large  fields,  which  without  some  positive 
data  are  so  easily  misjudged.  The  figures  for  school  attend- 
ance, Literacy  of  adults  (recruits,  or  persons  contracting  mar- 
riage), frequency  of  letter-writing,  bookproduction  and  sale,  etc., 
are  useful  in  estimating  the  degree  of  a  nation's  education  and 
the  exchange  carried  on  in  intellectual  treasures;  but  we  cannot 
base  our  judgments  exclusively  upon  them,  because  the  things 
of  the  mind  are  contingent  upon  many  other  factors  which  by 
their  very  nature  do  not  admit  of  computation. 

Joining  hands  with  the  criminologists,  the  moral  statisticians 
have  investigated  the  influence  of  education  upon  national  mo- 
rality, and  thereby  helped  to  solve  problems  that  are  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  the  science  of  education  as  well  as  for 
ethics.  False  conclusions  have,  indeed,  been  set  down  by  some 
investigators.  Thus  Perdonnet's  dictum,  "Instruction  is  moral 
improvement,"  is  the  result  of  ignoring  the  difference  between 
knowledge  and  conscience,  intellect  and  will.  But  it  is  not  the 
statistics  which  are  at  fault;  it  is  the  wrong  moral  standard  of 
the  men  who  draw  conclusions  from  them.  Individualism  and 
its  near  relative,  intellectualism,  had,  since  the  i8th  century, 
treated  ethics  so  entirely  apart  from  social  science  that  these 
men  were  unable  to  interpret  aright  the  collective  phenomena 
presented  by  statistics.  Ottingen  deserves  credit  for  demand- 


INTRODUCTION  37 

ing  that  personal  ethics  be  developed  into  social  ethics,  for  the 
science  was  thereby  qualified  to  digest  statistical  facts.  Some 
have  considered  it  a  whim  of  the  theologian  that  Ottingen  con- 
ceded to  Christianity  its  constitutive  influence  upon  morality, 
but  he  did  this  because  he  felt  that  no  other  movement  in  the 
history  of  the  world  can  better  explain  and  more  fully  harmonize 
the  opposition  between  the  individual  and  the  community,  be-. 
tween  the  rights  of  an  individual  and  his  duties  as  a  member  of 
society,  between  the  liberty  of  man  as  a  moral  agent  and  the 
limitations  of  free  will  resulting  from  natural  and  historical 
development.  Our  chief  regret  is  that  Ottingen's  Lutheran 
point  of  view  did  not  permit  him  to  look  with  an  unbiased 
mind  upon  the  great  social  and  ethical  institutions  of  the  Chris- 
tian world. 

9.  Auguste  Comte's  sociology  has  been  vastly  overrated, 
and  it  needs  but  a  cursory  examination  to  realize  that  his  views 
throw  no  light  upon  the  mutual  relations  existing  between  the 
individual  and  the  community.  Comte  treats  psychology  as  a 
branch  of  biology  with  phrenology  as  its  scientific  basis,  and 
consequently  cannot  be  expected  to  examine  seriously  into  the 
soul-life  of  the  individual.  His  moral  philosophy  is  crudely 
materialistic,  and  its  sensualistic  tendency  is  not  corrected  by 
the  attempted  inoculation  of  higher  and  purer  elements.  His 
sociology  never  attains  to  the  level  of  social  ethics,  but  remains 
merely  social  physics  and  obscures  the  great  problems  of  moral 
philosophy  by  applying  the  notion  of  law,  as  abstracted  from 
nature,  to  the  moral  order.  Neither  will  the  principles  of  Comte's 
philosophy  of  history  bear  a  close  scrutiny.  His  supreme  thesis, 
reiterated  ad  nauseam ,  that  humanity  passed  from  the  stage  of 
childhood,  where  faith  and  theology  were  its  guides,  into  ado- 
lescence and  youth,  where  abstract  thinking  and  metaphysics 
prevailed,  and  ultimately  attained  to  manhood — the  age  of  Pos- 
itivism— where,  for  the  first  time,  facts,  and  not  dreams,  are 
perceived  and  understood — this  thesis,  I  say,  does  not  explain 
the  development  of  the  human  mind.  Comte  has  actually  in- 
verted the  order  in  which  the  principles  governing  his  three 
epochs  should,  by  reason  of  their  respective  value,  be  considered. 
Occupation  with  material  things  marks  the  lowest  stage  of 
philosophy;  then  the  mind  proceeds  from  appearances  to  the 
study  of  the  nature  of  objects,  which  denotes  a  higher  step; 
the  highest  stage  is  reached  when  man  recognizes  that  he  is 
unequal  to  understanding  everything,  and  that  there  is  a  reality 
to  which  he  can  attain  only  in  the  light  of  faith.  Comte's 


38  INTRODUCTION 

views  on  education  are  of  very  unequal  merit;  they  are  purely 
fantastic  when  he  describes  education  as  the  mainstay  of  the 
new  Positivistic  age,  which  is  to  be  ruled  by  a  "hierarchy  of 
intelligence"  devoid  of  anything  smacking  of  the  lepov  or  of  the 
things  of  the  mind.  But  when  Comte  tells  us  that  education  is 
to  be  sought  in  the  "consensus"  of  social  phenomena,  and  that 
it  cannot  be  understood  except  by  passing  beyond  abstract 
psychological  concepts  and  examining  into  the  ever-changing 
state  of  civilization,  he  displays  fine  discrimination.1  By  proving 
the  solidarity  and  interrelation  of  the  forces  at  work  in  society, 
which  are  the  proper  subjects  of  social  statics,  Comte  'has  ren- 
dered a  great  service  to  sociology,  which  gives  him  a  place  of 
honor  among  its  pioneers,  for  to  inquire  into  the  totality  of  the 
social  phenomena  will  ever  remain  the  starting-point  of  social 
science. 

In  establishing  this  same  view  Lilienfeld  and  Schaffle  have 
laid  the  natural  sciences,  especially  evolution,  under  tribute  and 
have  gone  so  far  as  to  divest  the  time-honored  analogy  between 
the  social  and  the  organic  body  of  its  purely  figurative  meaning 
and  to  treat  it  as  a  reality,  for  they  consider  both  society  and 
the  animal  body  as  compounds  of  forces:  the  former  of  intel- 
lectual; the  latter,  of  physical  forces.  Lilienfeld's  method  and 
presentment  are  terse  and  compendious,  whereas  SchafHe  first 
sketches  the  outline  of  the  social  cosmos  and  then  fills  it  out 
with  the  products  of  his  immense  erudition.  SchafBe's  encyclo- 
pedia of  sociology  marks,  as  it  were,  the  terminus  ad  quern  of 
education,  /.  £.,  the  position  which,  developing  along  sociological 
lines,  it  must  occupy  in  the  structure  of  the  social  world.  This 
is  a  fruitful  conception  and  we  have  utilized  it  in  the  first  part 
of  this  Introduction. 

We  must,  however,  guard  against  overestimating  the  impor- 
tance of  this  system  of  sociology  based  on  the  natural  sciences. 
Though  its  field  is  more  extensive  than  that  of  any  of  the  other 
systems  discussed,  it  cannot  explain  all  the  phenomena  of  the 
social  world.  Thus  it  has  no  key  wherewith  to  unlock  the  prob- 


1  Cf.  Cours  de  philosophic  positive,  IV,  349.  La  vicieuse  preponderance  des 
considerations  biologiques  et  1'irrational  dedain  des  notions  historiques  ont  par- 
eillement  conduit  a  meconnaitre  profondement  la  veritable  evolution  sociale  et  a 
supposer  une  fixite  chimerique  a  des  dispositions  essentiellement  variables.  Cette 
influence  nuisible  est  surtout  tres  marquee  dans  la  plupart  des  theories  relatives  a 
1'education,  presque  toujours  consideree  ainsi  a  la  maniere  theologico-metaphysique, 
abstraction  faite  de  1'etat  correlatif  de  la  civilisation  humaine.  Cf.  Catholic  Ency- 
clopedia, Positivism. 


*  INTRODUCTION  39 

lem  of  the  mutual  relationship  existing  between  the  individual 
and  society,  because  it  applies  concepts  derived  from  the  natural 
order  to  the  intellectual  order,  regardless  of  the  generic  differ- 
ence between  the  two.  Lilienfeld  and  his  school  perceive  in  the 
analogy  between  the  living  body  and  the  social  organism  more 
than  a  simile  fruitful  in  thoughts  and  suggestions,  and  make  it 
the  first  principle  of  inquiry,  since  they  assume  a  real  conform- 
ity, almost  identity,  in  the  operations  of  the  two  essentially 
different  fields.  Society  is  not  a  compound  of  ideal  forces;  it  is 
rather  an  ideal  compound  of  forces.  Masses  of  men,  though 
one  in  language,  customs,  and  interests,  do  not  constitute  a 
nation;  they  must  be  conscious  of  being  bound  together  by  the 
ties  of  a  common  nationhood.  A  number  of  men  imbued  with 
the  same  ideas  on  religion  do  not  constitute  a  religious  body;  to 
be  a  religious  body,  they  must  be  conscious  of  being  united  by 
a  common  faith.  The  animal  organism  needs  but  a  union  of 
forces  to  be  a  reality;  but  social  forces  must  produce  an  act  of 
consciousness,  before  the  social  organism  can  be  said  to  possess 
reality;  without  this  act — which  is  an  act  of  the  free  will — no 
social  organism  exists.  Therefore  consciousness  is  of  vastly 
greater  •  importance  for  the  social  organism  than  the  organic 
individual,  the  cell,  is  for  the  living  body.  The  cell  is  but  a 
part  of  the  animal  organism,  whereas  the  consciousness  of  the 
individual  is  not  only  a  part  of  the  social  organism,  but  the 
source  of  its  continued  existence.  Compared  with  the  organism, 
the  cell  is  a  unit  of  a  lower  order:  the  organism  is  its  end;  but 
in  the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the  community,  the 
latter  is  not  superior  to  the  individual:  both  are  complements 
of  each  other,  and  neither  of  them  is  merely  a  means  for  the 
other.  There  are  two  termini  in  the  moral  world:  the  one  is 
the  personality  of  the  individual,  the  other  is  the  intellectual 
and  moral  community;  the  structure  of  the  physical  universe 
here  makes  way  for  a  new  architectonic  principle. 

The  deep,  yet  simple,  wisdom  of  Christianity  is  'our  safest 
guide  also  in  this  matter,  and  it  alone  furnishes  the  true  stand- 
ard by  which  we  can  correct  the  errors  of  the  naturalists.  The 
Church  has  ever  considered  the  simile  of  the  living  body  as  of 
basic  significance  for  her  own  teachings,  and  no  mechanistic  or 
individualistic  system  of  philosophy  has  ever  made  her  doubt  of 
her  own  organic  character.  But,  though  intent  on  incorporat- 
ing the  individual  with  her  mystical  body,  the  Church  never 
denied  the  absolute  value  of  the  individual  soul,  but  has  ever 


4-O  INTRODUCTION 

regarded,  next  to  God's  glory,  the  care  for  the  individual  as  the 
chief  function  of  her  divine  mission  among  men. 


III. 


i.  If  we  insist  that  the  science  of  education  embrace  the 
social  and  collective  phenomena  belonging  to  its  field,  then  we 
must  demand  that  history  also  enter  into  the  scope  of  the  edu- 
cationist, for  it  is  one  and  the  same  principle  that  requires  the 
study  of  the  social  and  the  historical  aspects  of  education.  To 
assign  to  education  its  proper  place  in  the  process  of  social  re- 
construction is  synonymous  with  determining  its  position  in  the 
course  of  historical  development  and  inquiring  into  its  influence 
upon  the  continuity  of  human  affairs.  To  consider  education 
as  a  bond  between  different  generations,  as  a  heritage  and  an 
assimilation,  is  to  view  it  from  the  standpoint  of  history,  for  all 
that  has  been  transmitted  and  all  that  produces  the  assimi- 
lation— intellectual  treasures  and  human  organizations — have 
developed  in  the  course  of  time  and  can  be  understood  only  in 
the  light  of  history.  To  follow  up  the  forces  and  agencies  that 
together  constitute  the  system  of  education,  means  to  deal  with 
historical  movements  and  historical  values,  for,  though  they  can 
all  be  traced  back  to  human  nature,  they  have  assumed  various 
forms  in  the  course  of  historical  development. 

Educationists  have  ever  evinced  a  certain  unwillingness  to 
study  the  historical  development  of  education,  and,  despite  the 
intimate  connection  between  the  social  and  the  historical  side  of 
the  subject,  some  have  studied  the  former  but  ignored  the  latter. 
The  reason  is  that  educational  movements  as  a  rule  owe  their 
existence  to  a  desire  to  reform,  if  not  to  reorganize,  the  existing 
system,  and  hence  direct  attention  to  the  future  rather  than  the 
past.  Reformers  never  do  full  justice  to  the  achievements  of 
the  past;  intent  upon  changing  prevailing  conditions,  they  are 
too  prejudiced  to  appraise  them  at  their  true  value  and  to  ap- 
preciate the  actual  work  embodied  in  existing  institutions. 

Plato,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  devising  an  educational  sys- 
tem for  his  philosopher-kings,  did  not  reject  all  points  of  contact 
with  the  past,  but  adopted  some  of  the  national  customs  and 
some  of  the  educational  views  of  Pythagoras.  Yet  he  did  not 
understand  the  importance  of  historical  development  for  edu- 
cation, for  he  demands  that  the  child  be  brought  up  outside  the 


INTRODUCTION  4! 

family  circle,  learn  nothing  of  the  nation's  poetry  and  traditions, 
and  be  kept  aloof,  at  least  during  its  early  years,  from  the  com- 
pany of  its  elders,  whom  the  philosopher  thought  hopelessly 
corrupt.  Even  in  his  Laws,  where  he  adheres  more  closely  to 
the  conditions  obtaining  in  his  day,  and  where  he  expresses  such 
a  sublime  conception  of  education,  describing  it  as  the  trans- 
mission of  intellectual  treasures,  even  there  we  miss  a  broad 
outlook  upon  the  forces  and  agencies  of  history,  upon  which  all 
public  institutions  depend,  and  which  cannot  be  supplied  by 
abstract  principles.  No  system  of  state  pedagogy  but  will  re- 
veal the  same  defect:  the  various  organizing  activities  of  the 
State  are  dealt  with,  but  the  historical  forces  and  agencies  that 
created  a  system  of  education  before  the  State  ever  concerned 
itself  with  the  matter,  are  simply  ignored. 

The  pedagogical  systems  of  the  I7th  century,  which  also 
ventured  upon  the  dangerous  ground  of  state  pedagogy,  are 
aptly  characterized  by  the  motto  which  Wolfgang  Ratke,  their 
pioneer,  chose  for  his  writings:  "Vetustas  cessit,  ratio  vicit." 
Comenius,  the  most  important  representative  of  the  new  edu- 
cational thought,  did  not  express  himself  in  equally  strong 
terms,  but  he  nevertheless  failed  to  explain  whether  and  where 
his  far-reaching  reforms  had  a  support  in  history.1  These  earlier 
didacticians  had  some  sort  of  a  historical  basis,  in  as  much  as 
they  held  fast  to  the  philological  and  theological  element  of  the 
older  education;  but  the  later  pedagogy  of  the  Enlightenment 
discarded  this  also.  Rousseau  made  it  his  principle  to  repudiate 
the  past:  "Always  do  the  opposite  of  the  traditional,  and  you 
will  do  the  right  thing. "  Though  his  followers  modified  this 
maxim  somewhat,  yet  they  too  distrusted  whatever  had  been 
handed  down  from  the  past,  and  contended  that  pedagogy  had 
to  be  made  all  over.  The  leaders  of  the  rationalistic  era  held 
that  the  arts  and  sciences,  pedagogy  included,  could  be  raised 
to  an  eminence  undreamt  of  in  the  "Dark  Ages,"  if  only  new 
methods  superseded  the  antiquated  fashions — never  once  real- 


1  Comenius  mentions  his  immediate  predecessors,  Ratke,  Bodinus,  Fortius, 
Bateus,  etc.  (Cf.  Didactica  magna,  introduction,  §10  and  Methodus  linguarum 
novissima,  cap.  8);  but  he  knows  nothing  of  the  great  encyclopedias  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  remote  forerunners  of  his  pansophical  undertakings,  nor  of  such  text- 
books as  had  formerly  been  in  wide  use,  e.  g.,  J.  Murmelius'  Pappa,  which  followed 
the  principles  of  the  Janua  in  arranging  the  vocables  according  to  their  meaning. 
He  likewise  failed  to  appreciate  the  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts,  although  it 
embraced  the  mathematical  studies  demanded  by  Comenius;  and  his  connection 
with  the  whole  system  is,  at  best,  only  external  (Didactica  magna,  cap.  30).  . 


42  INTRODUCTION 

izing  that  they  were  carrying  on  their  work  of  destruction,  by 
means  of  the  very  instruments  they  had  inherited  from  preced- 
ing generations,  and  that  they  were  entirely  dependent  in  their 
own  efforts  upon  the  views,  the  endeavors,  and  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  piast. 

2.  Pestalozzi  presents  a  curious  amalgam  of  the  Zeitgeist  and 
the  opposite  tendency  to  adopt  all  that  had  proved  its  value  in 
the  past  and  must,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  a  basis  for  all  fu- 
ture attempts.  It  is  this  contradiction  that  makes  Pestalozzi's 
system  so  difficult  to  understand.  He  contends,  especially  in 
his  early  writings,  that  education  should  not  cast  about  for  new- 
fangled theories,  but  follow  the  wise  and  simple  methods  handed 
down  from  past  ages,  and  that  all  attempts  at  reform  should 
embody  the  "venerable  remains  of  the  superior  educational 
system  of  our  ancestors".1  But  his  own  system  of  education 
was  launched  in  direct  opposition  to  this  view,  as  entirely  new 
and  well-nigh  perfect.  In  devising  it,  Pestalozzi  failed  to  ap- 
preciate the  most  obvious  truths  of  the  old  education.  When 
he  established  language,  form,  and  number  as  the  three  instru- 
ments of  education,  he  forgot  that  these  have  been  the  founda- 
tion of  all  schooling  from  time  immemorial.  The  Pythagoreans 
considered  number  and  measure  the  basis  of  wisdom,  and  highly 
regarded  the  mental  power  that  gave  things  their  names.  These 
three  factors  had  been  employed  as  fundamental  principles  of 
education  thousands  of  years  before  Pestalozzi.  What  need  for 
him,  moreover,  to  search,  as  he  did,  for  a  core  around  which 
the  elementary  branches  might  be  grouped,  when  religious  in- 
struction had  long  before  established  itself  as  such! 

Though  Herbart  was  clearer  and  more  definite  in  his  aims 
than  Pestalozzi,  he  failed,  like  the  latter,  in  trying  to  bridge  the 
chasm  between  a  shallow,  unhistorical  Zeitgeist  and  the  deeper 
and  more  comprehensive  view  of  education.  Herbart's  prin- 
ciples and  methods  are  individualistic,  and  therefore  his  peda- 
gogy is  too  narrow  to  embrace  the  historical  factors  of  education. 
He  holds  that  the  true  nature  of  education  was  revealed  only 
after  Locke  had  given  the  impetus  to  examining  the  personality 
of  each  individual  pupil,2  and  merely  insists  that  "since  Locke 
the  science  of  education  has  made  constant  progress".3  In  his 

1  Schweizerblatt,   1782;    Complete   Works,  edited   by  Seyffarth,   VII,   pp.   273, 
294,  et  al. 

2  Pddagogische  Schriften,  II,  p.  240  and  p.  233. 

3  Application  of  Psychology  to  the  Science  of  Education,  tr.  by  B.  C.  Mulliner, 
London,  1898,  p.  9. 


INTRODUCTION  43 

review  of  Schwarz's  Erziehungslehre  he  describes  the  author's 
notes  on  medieval  education  as  "unpleasant  parerga  which  are  of 
purely  historic  interest,  but  may  serve  to  give  us  some  satisfac- 
tion as  showing  the  superiority  of  present  educational  methods. " 
Schwarz's  account  of  the  Humanist  movement  is  of  less  interest 
to  him  than  the  question,  what  methods  Sturm  would  adopt 
under  present-day  conditions.1  This  attitude  is  convincing  proof 
that  Herbart  never  realized  that  our  modern  universities  had 
their  beginnings  in  the  Middle  Ages,  that  our  colleges  are  a  re- 
sult of  the  Renaissance,  and  that  the  essence  of  modern  edu- 
cation cannot  be  understood  except  in  the  light  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Occasionally,  however,  Herbart  makes  a  statement  which 
proves  that  his  view  was  not  entirely  hemmed  in  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  his  system.  In  his  Allgemeine  Padagogik,  published 
in  1806,  he  avers  that  "the  true  and  right  educator  is  the  power 
of  what  men  have  at  any  time  felt,  experienced,  and  thought," 
and  that  "to  present  to  the  young  the  whole  treasure  of  ac- 
cumulated research  in  concentrated  form  is  the  highest  service 
which  mankind  can  render  at  any  period  of  its  existence  to  its 
successors. "  Seven  years  later,  when  engaged  on  problems  of 
psychology,  he  was  even  more  emphatic  in  asserting  that  human 
progress  depends  entirely  on  historical  development,  because 
each  generation  transmits  to  its  offspring  those  ideas  that  have 
been  most  fully  developed,  besides  its  language,  its  inventions, 
arts,  and  social  institutions,  so  that  the  whole  past  lives  in  each 
one  of  us,  and  empirical  psychology  cannot  be  universal  in%its 
scope  unless  it  remains  under  the  influence  and  inspiration  of 
history.3 

This  change  in  Herbart's  views  was,  no  doubt,  induced  by 
the  general  revival  of  historical  studies  at  the  beginning  of  the 
1 9th  century.  The  individualistic  philosophy  of  the  Enlighten- 
ment had  given  way  to  a  healthy  reaction:  men  turned  to  study 
the  inheritances  of  the  past  and.  found  among  them  the  counter- 
parts as  well  as  the  reason  for  existing  conditions.  This  change 
affected  all  sciences;  for  philosophy  and  jurisprudence  it  proved 
epochal;  economics,  too,  received  a  fresh  impetus  in  all  its  de- 
partments; and  educationists  took  up  again  the  study  of  what 
had  been  neglected  for  a  full  century — the  continuity  of  educa- 
tional history.  This  revived  interest  in  the  history  of  educa- 

1  Padagogische  Schriften,  II,  pp.  233,  237. 

2  The  Science  of  Education,  tr.  by  H.M.  and  E.  Felkin,  London,  1892,  p.  81. 

3  Lehrbuch  zur  Einleitung  in  die  Philosophic,  1813.     Gesammelte  Werke,  edited 
by  Hartenstein,  I,  p.  302. 


44  INTRODUCTION 

tion  as  well  as  that  of  the  other  sciences,  owed  not  a  little  to 
the  teachings  of  Hegel  and  Schelling.  Schwarz,  a  disciple  of 
Schelling,  was  the  first  to  write  a  general  history  of  education, 
Geschichte  der  Erziehung  nach  ihrem  Zusammenhang  unter  den 
Volkern  (1813  and  1829).  Of  Hegel's  scholars,  Fr.  Cramer, 
Alex.  Kapp,  G.  Thaulow  and  others  produced  valuable  histor- 
ical works.  The  re-introduction  of  the  Christian  element  was 
of  even  greater  importance,  for  Christianity,  along  with  the  na- 
tional and  ancient  elements,  not  only  constitutes  the  real  con- 
tent of  history,  but  it  is  the  golden  thread  which  unites  the 
different  ages,  binding  them  to  the  supernatural  element  that 
is  eternal  and  indestructible.  It  is  significant  that  Karl  von 
Raumer's  history  of  education,  the  first  to  draw  upon  6riginal 
sources,  and  of  permanent  value  despite  its  partisan  spirit  in 
religion,  is  based  on  Christian  principles.  The  same  is  true  of 
K.  A.  Schmid's  monumental  Enzyklopadie  des  gesamten  Er- 
ziehungs-  und  Unterrichtswesens  as  well  as  of  the  same  author's 
scholarly  Geschichte  der  Erziehung?  The  history  of  education 
has  since  been  cultivated  with  good  success,  K.  Kehrbach's 
Monumenta  Germaniae  paedagogica  being  the  most  striking  case 
in  point.  The  history  of  education  is  to-day  rightly  considered 
to  be  the  best  safeguard  against  superficiality,  vagueness,  and 
subjectivism.  Many  educationists  perceive  that  numerous  and 
diversified  relations  exist  between  history  and  the  science  of 
education,  and  it  needs  but  one  step  further  to  prove  that  some 
of  these  relations  are  intrinsic  and  essential. 

3.  What,  then,  were  the  reasons  that  have  led  modern  edu- 
cationists to  take  up  the  study  of  history,  and  what  positive 
gain  can  they  expect  from  historical  studies?  In  the  first  place, 
they  can  expect  the  gain  obtainable  by  all  the  sciences,  natural 
as  well  as  moral,  whether  relatively  complete  or  still  in  an  em- 
bryonic state,  when  they  study  their  own  development  in  the 
light  of  history.  To  progress  securely,  every  science  must  know 
whence  it  has  come;  to  increase  Jts  stock  of  knowledge,  it  must 
join  what  it  has  acquired  to  what  it  has  received  from  tradition; 
in  order  not  to  overestimate  the  new,  it  must  be  able  to  recog- 
nize the  old  in  the  new;  and  in  order  not  to  underestimate  the 
new,  it  must  never  lose  sight  of  the  problems  that  have  for  ages 
baffled  a  satisfactory  solution.  Education  has  more  reasons  than 
most  other  sciences  for  accepting  historic  continuity  as  a  princi- 


1  K.  A.  Schmid's  Geschichte  der  Erziehung  was  continued  by  G.  Schmid;  the 
fifth  and  last  volume  appeared  in  1902. 


INTRODUCTION  45 

pie  for  all  its  researches,  because  all  educational  systems  are, 
by  their  very  nature,  directed  more  towards  the  future  than  the 
past,  and  are  ever  flushed  with  the  hope  of  making  new  and 
startling  discoveries,  so  that  educationists  are,  as  a  rule,  loath 
to  recognize  the  achievements  of  the  past  and  slow  to  combine 
them  with  the  endeavors  of  the  present. 

The  history  of  education  as  a  science  is  not  directly  con- 
cerned with  education  as  such;  its  proper  end  is  to  record  edu- 
cational views,  theories,  and  systems,  to  tell  about  the  men  who 
propagated  them  and  the  books  they  wrote.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
larger  history  of  the  sciences;  it  is  intimately  connected  with 
the  history  of  philosophy,  since  all  advanced  educational  thought 
is  influenced  by  the  trend  of  speculation;  but  it  is  also  related 
to  the  history  of  religion,  of  language,  and  of  the  art  of  lan- 
guage, because  theology,  philology,  and  literature  are  of  funda- 
mental importance  in  education.  The  history  of  the  science  of 
education  must  follow  up,  with  some  attention  to  detail,  the 
history  of  these  related  sciences  and  of  the  other  sources  of 
educational  thought;  it  must  throw  light  upon  all  phases  of 
educational  speculation;  must  trace  the  lines  of  contact  and  di- 
vergence between  the  various  educational  theories;  must  show 
where  one  system  complements  another;  and  must,  finally,  show 
how  the  educational  conditions  of  the  present  may  be  improved. 

While  engaged  in  such  studies  we  cannot  but  note  that  the 
very  object  of  whose  speculative  treatment  we  are  tracing  the 
history,  is  itself  a  matter  of  history:  the  educational  theories  of 
the  past  presuppose  existing  (and  therefore  changing)  condi- 
tions. Educationists,  whether  they  wished  to  reform  or  to  throw 
light  upon  the  traditional  views,  always  had  an  eye  on  the  edu- 
cational practices  of  their  age.  This  alone  would  make  it  neces- 
sary for  us  to  consider,  not  only  their  theories,  but  also  the 
educational  systems  in  vogue  at  their  time.  But  over  and  above 
this  consideration,  the  various  educational  practices  and  insti- 
tutions are  in  themselves  of  paramount  importance  for  obtain- 
ing a  clear  view  of  the  nature  of  the  educative  process.  Human 
nature  remains,  indeed,  essentially  the  same,  and  has  ever  been 
the  basis  for  all  educational  endeavor;  yet  it  does  not  supply 
all  that  is  needed  to  explain  the  categories,  the  aims,  the  prob- 
lems, and  phenomena  of  education.  To  explain  these  we  must 
analyze  and  compare  the  various  institutions  that  have  taken 
shape  in  the  course  of  time.  Any  purely  theoretical  explanation 
will  ever  be  exposed  to  the  danger  of  looking  on  the  merely  tran- 
sient as  of  permanent  value,  of  confounding  the  particular  with 


46  INTRODUCTION 

the  general,  of  establishing  its  general  principles  on  a  too  narrow 
basis  of  facts,  and  of  underestimating  the  interrelation  and  in- 
terdependence of  existing  systems  of  education.  To  remove 
these  pitfalls  and  to  supply  a  comprehensive  and  illustrative 
supply  of  historical  material,  is  the  aim  of  the  history  of  educa- 
tional systems.  Its  relation  to  the  history  of  the  science  of  edu- 
cation is  analogous  to  the  relation  between  the  history  of  the 
Church  and  the  history  of  dogma,  between  the  history  of  law 
and  the  history  of  jurisprudence,  between  the  history  of  poetry 
and  the  history  of  poetics.  In  the  one  the  content  of  the  art  or 
science  is  the  object  of  inquiry,  whilst  the  various  methods 
adopted  to  explain  and  to  systematize  this  content  are  treated 
in  the  history  of  the  respective  systems.  Considered  from  the 
viewpoint  of  historical  science,  the  history  of  the  systems  of 
education  is  a  department  of  the  history  of  civilization,  closely 
related  to  the  history  of  morals,  of  religion,  and  of  social  and 
political  institutions.  Like  all  departments  of  the  history  of 
civilization,  it  must  turn  to  diverse  sources  for  its  material.  In 
former  times  the  principles,  institutions,  and  customs  belonging 
to  this  field  were  rarely  made  the  subject  of  special  and  detailed 
accounts;  and  to  obtain  any  knowledge  of  them  we  must  con- 
sult law  and  statute  books,  search  in  larger  histories  for  an  oc- 
casional reference  to  educational  conditions,  and,  in  general, 
trace  existing  institutions  in  a  roundabout  way  to  their  begin- 
nings. Even  professedly  educational  writings,  as  they  mostly 
aim  at  reform,  are  not  reliable  guides  to  a  knowledge  of  actual 
conditions;  and  school  laws  are  subject  to  the  same  limitation. 
The  study  of  modern  educational  systems  is  rendered  less  diffi- 
cult by  the  fact  that  trustworthy  sources  and  original  documents 
are  generally  accessible.  The  aid  rendered  by  statistics,  aptly 
described  as  "history  halting  on  its  onward  rush,"  is  invaluable 
in  connection  with  the  study  of  present-day  systems;  and  to 
understand  these  is  of  essential  importance  to  the  historian  of 
educational  systems.  Political  history  may  refuse  to  regard  as 
historical  such  movements  as  are  still  in  process  of  development, 
but  the  history  of  civilization  is  real  history  in  the  sense  of  the 
icrTopia  of  the  ancients,  i.e.,  it  is  concerned  with  movements  and 
events  both  past  and  present.  Even  if  there  be  a  difference  in 
.tone  and  manner  between  the  history  of  the  past  and  that  of 
the  present,  they  are  parts  of  one  whole  and  may  not  be  sepa- 
rated. To  explain  existing  conditions  historically,  we  must  de- 
scribe their  present  status;  to  describe  the  institutions  of  the 
present,  we  must  inquire  into  their  origin  and  development. 


INTRODUCTION  47 

4.  To  trace  existing  institutions  to  their  beginnings,  i.e.,  to 
look  back  upon  the  history  of  the  forces  at  work  to-day,  is  the 
most  interesting  part  and  the  most  profitable  task  of  the  his- 
tory of  education.  This  history  will  show  the  genealogical  tree 
of  our  educational  views,  ideals,  and  customs,  and  of  our  cul- 
tural tendencies,  instruments,  and  institutions;  it  will,  further- 
more, show  the  concentric  layers  formed  in  the  trunk  of  the  tree, 
as  the  ages  rolled  on;  it  will  indicate  the  points  whence  branches 
and  twigs  issued,  and  will  open  up  to  view  the  intricate  roots 
that  supply  the  nourishment.  Such  an  inquiry  must  extend  far 
back  into  the  past,  because  our  complex  civilization  and  culture 
comprise  elements  brought  from  distant  climes  and  ages.  Our 
alphabet  is  an  invention  of  the  Phenicians.  Our  calendar  is  the 
joint  work  of  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians;  to  the  Egyptians 
we  probably  owe  also  the  animal  fable  and  elementary  mathe- 
matics. To  India  we  are  indebted  for  our  system  of  notation 
and  for  certain  exotic  elements  in  our  tales,  while  the  indigenous 
elements  can  be  traced  to  Celtic,  Germanic,  and  Slavic  sources. 
The  Greek  and  Roman  classics  equip  our  youth  for  higher  stud- 
ies, but  the  ancients  are  in  a  still  larger  sense  the  teachers  of 
the  modern  world:  their  grammar,  perfected  in  Alexandria,  is 
the  foundation  of  all  our  language  studies;  the  mathematics 
taught  in  our  schools  is  based  upon  Euclid's  elements,  and  our 
advanced  mathematicians  have  but  just  begun  to  break  the 
ancient  fetters;  our  rhetoric,  prosody,  science  of  music,  all  fol- 
low ancient  models.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  traces  in 
modern  education  of  the  ancient  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts. 
Thus  not  only  the  content,  but  the  forms  and  methods  of  our 
education  are,  in  great  measure,  inherited  from  the  ancients;  our 
educational  aims,  too,  are  deeply  influenced  by  their  cultural 
ideals — the  paideia  of  Greece  and  the  humanitas  of  Rome  About 
one-half  of  the  world's  leading  universities  and  a  great  number 
of  the  world's  best  secondary  schools  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
Middle  Ages;  the  medieval  Origines  and  Specula  are  the  proto- 
types of  the  modern  encyclopedia,  and  The  Soul's  Balm  and 
Jewel  of  the  Middle  Ages  are  the  patterns  of  our  juvenile  liter- 
ature; the  youth  of  our  day  are  still  enjoying  many  of  the  verses, 
sayings,  riddles,  and  games  that  entertained  the  lads  and  lasses 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  Modern  culture  conserves  more  of  this  in- 
heritance than  modern  education,  since  the  latter  is  so  intimate- 
ly interwoven  with  the  daily  ever-changing  life  of  the  masses; 
but  even  customs  and  manners  are  often  more  closely  connected 
with  tradition  than  would  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  be  the  case. 


48  INTRODUCTION 

There  is  a  certain  pleasure  in  tracing  the  beginnings  of  exist- 
ing conditions  and  in  throwing  light  upon  them  by  disclosing 
the  history  of  their  gradual  development;  but  this  pleasure  is 
not  the  only  incentive  for  historical  research,  for  there  are  joys 
and  rewards  in  the  work  irrespective  of  its  connection  with  the 
present.  At  first,  it  is  perhaps  a  sort  of  what  Carlyle  would 
term  "divine  curiosity"  that  leads  men  to  these  researches;  yet 
the  savant  will  eventually  discover  a  thought  and  a  soul  in  the 
raw-material  of  experiences  and  facts,  though  to  the  layman  it 
might  well  seem  destitute  of  meaning.  No  fact  is  too  insignifi- 
cant, too  remote  from  human  interest,  but  the  savant  will  find 
in  it  material  that  will  serve  either  for  a  point  of  comparison  or 
as  a  link  in  the  chain  of  some  general  reasoning.  Hence  a  further 
advantage  accruing  from  the  study  of  history:  history  teaches 
not  only  the  dependence  of  human  agencies  on  other  factors, 
but  also  their  mutability;  it  discloses  not  only  the  hidden  springs 
of  our  actions,  but  also  their  analogues  in  conditions  of  life  other 
than  our  own.  It  supplies  the  empirical  material  which  must 
form  the  basis  of  all  speculation  tending  toward  the  establish- 
ment of  general  principles  and  without  which  speculation  is 
wild  and  untrustworthy.  Because  the  viewpoint  of  education 
is  generally  narrow  and  its  generalizations  therefore  lack  breadth, 
this  science  stands  in  special  need  of  having  its  theoretical  spe- 
culations rectified  in  the  light  of  historical  events.  Too  many 
teachers  consider  the  aims,  the  content,  and  the  methods  of 
their  professional  work  as  implied  in  education  itself,  and  frown 
on  any  suggested  change  as  revolutionary  and  subversive  of 
educational  ideals.  Many  modern  educationists  create  the  im- 
pression that  the  public  school  -system  enjoys  the  monopoly  of 
education,  and  that  any  other  system,  no  matter  of  what  age 
or  country,  lags  woefully  behind.  But  when  some  prominent 
educational  leader  opens  their  eyes  to  the  defects  of  the  system 
and  the  superiority  of  others,  then  the  former  panegyrists  of 
the  public  school  are  likely  to  become  its  fiercest  foes;  narrow 
and  provincial  before,  they  are  broadly  generalizing  cosmopoli- 
tans now;  they  pass  from  one  extreme  to  another:  seeing  no 
longer  any  redeeming  features  in  the  public  schools,  they  would 
transplant  the  German  system  to  American  soil,  and,  unmindful 
of  the  modifications  necessitated  by  a  different  environment, 
they  would  produce  but  a  parody  and  caricature  of  a  foreign 
system.  But  the  history  of  education  will  both  broaden  and 
deepen  the  views  of  educators,  and  so  will  prove  a  corrective 


INTRODUCTION  49 

as  well  for  a  narrow  provincialism  as  for  too  broad  a  cosmopoli- 
tanism. 

5.  The  relation,  therefore,  between  the  history  of  education 
and  the  study  of  the  nature  of  education  is  of  an  intrinsic  and 
essential  character.  To  examine  into  the  origin  and  the  changes 
of  systems  of  education,  is  not  a  mere  complement,  but  a  basic 
part  of  the  science  of  education.  Research  and  speculation, 
elaboration  of  the  historical  and  empirical  data  and  strict  evolv- 
ing of  principles,  i.e.,  a  historical  and  philosophical  treatment, 
belong  together  and  must  be  employed  together  to  attain  their 
end.  This  need  of  combining  the  two  methods  is  not  confined 
to  education,  but  is  common  to  all  the  moral  sciences,  because 
they  are  at  once  historical  and  philosophical.  To  ascertain  the 
nature  of  law,  we  must  inquire  into  its  historical  forms  and  see 
what  laws  have  existed  in  various  ages  and  among  different 
peoples,  else  we  shall  never  arrive  at  reliable  conclusions  con- 
cerning its  source  and  nature.  To  be  successful,  then,  in  this 
field,  we  must  combine  the  historical  with  the  speculative  method. 
Pure  speculation,  though  productive  of  good  results,  could  never 
have  solved  the  problem  of  the  beautiful;  neither  could  the  ex- 
clusively historical  study  of  taste  and  the  arts  accomplish  this; 
a  real  science  of  art  was  made  possible  only  after  the  study  of 
aesthetics  was  joined  to  that  of  the  history  of  art.  Similarly, 
ethics  must  unite  history  with  speculation;  it  must,  as  its  name 
implies,  treat  of  morals,  of  the  forms  and  rules  of  life,  and  record 
their  changes  in  the  course  of  history;  but  it  may  not  sink  down 
to  the  level  of  a  merely  empirical  science,  it  may  not  neglect 
its  high  mission  to  prove  that  human  nature  is  the  basis  of  mor- 
ality and  that  the  destiny  of  man  is  its  end.  What  Trendelen- 
burg  has  so  well  said  of  ethics  is  true  of  all  the  sciences  that 
deal  with  human  actions:  "The  principle  of  this  science  is  human 
nature,  both  in  the  depth  of  its  idea  and  in  the  wealth  of  its 
historical  development.  Both  belong  together,  for  the  history 
alone  would  dull  the  vision,  and  the  ideal  alone  would  lead  to 
empty  and  hollow  views.  True  progress  consists  in  permeating 
the  historical  method  with  the  ideal,  and  in  joining  the  ideal 
to  the  study  of  historical  facts." 

The  historical  method,  if  rightly  applied  to  the  moral  sciences, 
affects  neither  their  speculative  nor  their  normative  character; 
they  will  still  fulfill  their  twofold  purpose  of  ascertaining  facts 
as  well  as  setting  up  ideals.  True,  -the  pioneers  of  a  science, 

1    Naturrecht  auf  dem  Grunde  der  Ethik,  2nd  ed.,  1868,  p.  45. 
4 


5O  INTRODUCTION 

when  first  applying  the  historical  method,  are  usually  tempted 
to  lose  themselves  in  the  labyrinth  of  historical  development 
and  to  relegate  to  the  background  the  question  how  this  new 
information  is  to  shape  the  policy  of  the  present  and  future,  or 
what  benefits  are  to  accrue  from  historical  discoveries  to  living 
science.  Savigny,  the  founder  of  the  historical  school  of  juris- 
prudence, was  accustomed  to  trace  the  organic  growth  and  de- 
velopment of  law,  and  felt  but  little  attraction  for  the  legisla- 
tive problems  of  his  own  day.1  His  great  pupil,  Jacob  Grimm, 
who  created  the  historical  grammar  of  the  German  language, 
so  loved  "to  trace  the  origins  of  the  simple  and  wonderful  ele- 
ments of  the  language  to  dark  and  immemorial  ages,"  that  he 
indignantly  refused  to  lay  down  rules  for  its  correct  use  and 
considered  the  analysis  of  the  rules  of  grammar  the  driest  of 
drudgery."  And  when  we  consider  the  activity  of  modern  gov- 
ernments, fabricating  law  upon  law  to  meet  the  most  trivial 
contingencies,  we  may  well  appreciate  Savigny's  dislike  of  press- 
ing into  the  service  of  the  State  the  genius  of  his  science,  which 
had  but  just  begun  to  draw  strength  from  the  past;  and  we  shall 
likewise  understand  Grimm's  refusal  to  furnish  every  mediocre 
pedant  with  the  gold  he  had  unearthed  from  the  rich  mines  of 
language  development.  Yet  science  must  not  hold  aloof  from 
the  problems  of  everyday  life.  Jurisprudence  may  not  refuse 
to  serve  as  a  luminary  both  for  legislation  and  the  practice  of 
law,  because  it  is  by  practice  that  theoretical  principles  and 
methods  must  be  tested.  Neither  may  the  science  of  philology 
prove  disloyal  to  its  time-honored  name  of  ars  grammatica;  it 
must  prove  not  only  an  explorer  of  the  past,  but  a  teacher  of 
the  living  present.  Science  may  not  in  the  long  run  eschew  the 
practical  problems  of  the  day,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  never  does. 
Though  it  is  sometimes  wrapt  in  deep  thought  and  reflection, 
these  but  presage  a  period  of  intense  activity.  In  the  face  of  a 
vast  mass  of  new  materials,  science  may  well  seem  impatient 
of  using  the  imperative  form  and  content  itself  with  the  indica- 
tive; but  the  final  goal  of  human  endeavor  is  the  imperative, 
the  categorical  imperative,  as  Kant  called  it,  to  which  is  joined 
a  system  of  hypothetical  imperatives,  which  must  be  formulated 
and  explained  by  science. 

It  was  only  in  this  sense  that  we  demanded  above  (p.  21  ff.) 
that  the  science  of  education,  before  drawing  up  rules  and  regu- 

1  Savigny,  Vom  Berufe  unserer  Zeit  zur  Gesetzgebung  und  Rechtswissenschaft,  1814. 

2  Jacob  Grimm,  Deutsche  Grammatik,  ist  edition,  I,  Preface. 


INTRODUCTION  =jl 

lations,  should  devote  itself  to  the  study  of  actual  conditions. 
In  doing  so,  of  course,  it  should  not  set  aside  all  practical  and 
ethical  tendencies,  but  merely  halt  the  shortsighted  and  ill- 
advised  haste  of  those  who  wish  to  regulate  and  direct  before 
they  have  obtained  a  clear  view  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  The  human  activities  to  which  education  is  devoted 
are  concerned  largely  with  the  solution  of  problems  and  the  per- 
formance of  duties,  and  are  too  closely  interwoven  with  the 
highest  interests  of  man  to  admit  of  being  studied  with  that 
coolness  and  objectivity  with  which  we  observe  natural  pheno- 
mena. The  search  after  truth  and  the  search  after  justice  are 
here  inseparable.  The  question,  What  is  education?  is  syn- 
onymous with  another,  namely,  What  sense  is  there  in  these 
doings?  What  ideas  underlie  them,  and  what  standards  are 
derived  therefrom?  All  these  questions  inevitably  culminate  in 
this:  What  is  the  end  and  object  of  education?  If  we  begin  our 
study  by  first  trying  to  ask  this  last-mentioned  question,  we 
might  be  tempted  to  confine  ourselves  to  the  problems  of  the 
here  and.  now,  and  to  employ  too  narrow  a  standard  in  laying; 
down  laws  and  regulations.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  begin  by 
studying  actual  facts  and  conditions  and  survey  the  immense 
field,  as  it  were,  from  the  summit  of  a  mountain,  we  shall  avoid 
that  danger,  without,  however,  neglecting  the  important  task 
of  fixing  norms  and  standards.  We  must  study  the  history  of- 
education  in  order  to  get  at  the  rational  basis  of  its  various 
phases,  to  become  acquainted  with  the  ideas  underlying  and 
inspiring  educational  movements;  and  such  a  historical  inquiry 
will  naturally  lead  up  to  the  practical  and  moral  question,  In 
how  far  are  present-day  educational  aims,  methods,  and  condi- 
tions in  conformity  with  the  dictates  of  right  reason?  and, 
By  what  ideas  is  our  age  guided? 

A  scientific  inquiry  following  the  lines  just  described,  will 
quite  naturally  differ  from  a  book  of  practical  instructions. 
Theoretical  and  practical  pedagogy  are  not  co-extensive.  The 
former  is  philosophical  in  character  and  deals  with  general 
conditions,  while  the  latter  is  concerned  with  particular  cases; 
the  former  treats  of  the  true  and  the  right,  the  latter  discusses 
the  means  and  instruments  of  realizing  what  is  true  and  right. 
Theoretical  pedagogy  furnishes  the  major  premise;  practical 
pedagogy,  the  minor  and  draws  the  conclusions  that  govern 
educational  activity.  Theory  is  .ever  striving  for  broad  and 
deep  views,  while  applied  science  gives  practical  and  definite 
directions,  which  must  allow  full  play  to  the  tact  of  the  indi- 


52  INTRODUCTION 

vidual  and  yet  serve  him  as  guides.  Yet  theory  and  art  are  not 
heterogeneous.  They  are  drawn  from  the  same  point  of  view, 
and  Herbart  is  evidently  mistaken  when  he  considers  the  chief 
difference  between  theoretical  and  practical  pedagogy  to  be  that 
the  former  considers  merely  the  conditions  of  education  (p.  28), 
whereas  the  latter  proceeds  from  the  concepts  of  purpose  and 
aim.  We  cannot  determine  the  purpose  of  a  science  without 
research  and  theorizing,  and  the  aim  of  a  science  can  therefore 
not  be  considered  the  starting-point  of  speculation;  neither  can 
we,  on  the  other  hand,  establish  the  conditions  on  which  an 
action  depends  without  looking  into  the  action  itself  and  exam- 
ining into  its  special  purpose;  theory  and  practice  are  related  to 
each  other  not  as  fact  and  ideal,  but  as  inquiry  and  rule;  but 
inquiry  into  facts  must  take  cognizance  of  the  ideal,  facts  and 
ideals  being  inseparable. 

6.  The  relation  described  above  as  existing  between  history 
and  the  science  of  education  is  common  to  all  the  moral  sciences. 
But  there  is  one  relation  which  is  proper  to  the  science  of  edu- 
cation alone.  In  as  far  as  the  system  of  education  represents  a 
field  of  human  activity,  it  has  its  own  history;  but  at  the  same 
time  it  is  related  to  general  history,  as  being  a  phase  of  the 
reconstruction  of  social  life,  which  is  a  condition  of  all  historical 
movements.  All  activity  directed  toward  the  intellectual  and 
moral  assimilation  of  the  young  makes  history  and  operates  by 
means  of  history;  it  makes  history,  for  it  bridges  over  the  gulf 
between  the  present  and  the  past  and  adds  new  links  to  the 
chain  of  successive  generations;  it  operates  by  means  of  history, 
for  its  instruments,  the  things  which  it  transmits,  the  institu- 
tions which  it  restores,  are  all  products  of  previous  development. 
Thus  we  have  in  educational  science  both  a  motor  of  the  future 
and  a  condenser  of  past  forces. 

Educationists  have  generally  overlooked  the  last-named  fact; 
and,  giving  more  attention  to  the  influences  that  education 
exerts  upon  the  men  and  women  of  to-morrow,  they  regard  the 
education  of  the  young  as  the  arm  of  the  lever  with  which  the 
generations  of  the  future  are  to  be  raised  to  a  higher  plane. 
Plato  hoped  to  realize  his  social  ideals  by  changing  the  ways  of 
the  growing  generation;  and  Rousseau  and  Fichte  shared  his 
view.  Cristopher  von  Uttenheim,  Bishop  of  Bale,  demanded 
that  the  reformation  of  the  Church  begin  with  the  young;  and 
Leibniz'  saying,  "Si  /'on  reformait  I 'education,  /'on  reformerait 
le  genre  humainy"  is  a  commonplace.  But  a  critical  and  dis- 
passionate study  of  the  great  revolutions  of  the  past — political, 


INTRODUCTION  53 

religious,  and  otherwise — does  not  warrant  such  exaggerated 
hopes.  Momentous  changes  have  always  been  wrought  by 
adults,  for  new  principles  must  first  change  the  life  of  a  nation 
before  they  can  modify  its  schools.  The  Gospel  was  preached 
first  to  men  and  women,  and  it  was  only  after  society  had  been 
Christianized  that  a  system  of  Christian  education  was  estab- 
lished. Humanism  was  received  first  by  scholars,  artists,  and 
men  of  the  world,  before  it  conquered  the  schools.  The  Re- 
formers of  the  1 6th  century  first  transformed  religion  and  so- 
ciety before  they  affected  the  educational  systems.  Upon  closer 
study  we  shall  find  that  the  great  revolutions  of  the  past  were 
wrought,  not  by,  but  in  direct  opposition  to,  the  educational 
systems  prevailing  at  the  time:  the  first  Christians  had  been 
educated  as  Jews  or  heathens;  the  Humanists,  as  Schoolmen; 
and  the  Reformers,  as  Catholics.  Life  is  a  power  that  effaces 
the  impressions  of  youthful  days,  because  the  forces  present  to 
the  adult  man  are  more  powerful  than  the  influences  which 
would  assimilate  the  young  to  the  types  of  a  past  age.  Even 
in,  spheres  that  are  more  secluded,  and  where  we  should  expect 
a  more  continuous  development,  e.  g.,  in  art,  literature,  and 
science,  the  influence  of  education  upon  the  process  is  surpris- 
ingly small.  The  great  masters  attain  their  eminence  despite 
the  deficient  education  received  during  the  period  when  their 
genius  was  still  growing;  the  epigoni  remain  small  in  the  face  of 
all  the  wealth  and  inspiration  drawn  from  the  models  of  their 
predecessors.  In  the  springtime  of  genius  great  talents  spring 
up  on  all  sides,  and  draw  their  nourishment  from  the  poorest  of 
soils;  but  when  the  time  of  plenty  has  come,  when  the  field  is 
saturated  with  the  richest  of  elements,  there  ensues  satiety,  the 
zest  for  labor  passes  away,  and  inspiration  dies  of  surfeit. 

Yet  education  will  ever  remain  a  powerful  force  in  history, 
even  though  mightier  powers  seem  to  undo  much  of  its  work. 
The  results  of  education  are  often  hid  from  view,  but  they  are 
there — a  mighty  power — for  modifying  the  larger  movements,  for 
intensifying  some  of  their  phases,  and  for  extending  their  effects 
over  wider  areas.  The  man  who  changes  the  current  of  his 
country's  course  of  thought  or  action  is  of  necessity  the  creature 
of  an  older  system.  The  impressions  received  in  youth  always 
influence  the  activity  of  manhood,  either  by  unconsciously  in- 
fluencing conduct  or  by  acting  as  a  brake  in  some  direction  or 
other.  Education  is,  then,  a  determining  factor  even  with  a 
generation  that  launches  a  new  movement.  But  its  chief  in- 
fluence is  exercised  when  there  is  question  of  transplanting  the 


54  INTRODUCTION 

new  principles  permanently  into  the  minds  and  lives  of  men. 
The  life  of  the  race  will  never  be  guided  by  new  views  until  a 
whole  series  of  generations  has  been  imbued  with  them.  If  the 
new  principles  be  powerful  enough  to  direct  education  into  new 
channels,  they  have  stood  the  test;  if  they  succeed  in  this,  the 
new  movement  will  prove  a  thing  of  permanence  in  the  world's- 
history;  but  if  they  fail,  the  new  movement  will  eventually 
prove  but  an  episode  and  a  ripple  in  the  onrushing  stream  of 
events.  While  the  sober  view  of  education  should  thus  preserve 
us  from  exaggerated  notions  of  its  influence,  we  still  have  reasons 
enough  to  work  strongly  and  unremittingly  to  shape  education 
along  the  right  lines.  Though  the  direct  influence  of  education 
upon  artistic  and  kindred  activities  be  small,  its  indirect  in- 
fluence is  great.  No  teacher  would  attempt  to  create  a  genius 
out  of  mediocre  material;  but  it  is  the  teacher's  duty  to  make 
the  world's  masterpieces  the  common  property  of  all,  to  purify 
and  correct  the  taste  of  the  public,  to  bring  hidden  talents  to 
light,  and  in  this  way  be  instrumental  in  preparing  the  way  for 
a  new  spring  of  art  and  literature. 

These  and  similar  considerations  reveal  the  debt  that  the 
science  of  education  owes  to  pragmatic  history:  the  latter  fur- 
nishes a  standard  for  the  assimilation  of  the  young;  it  corrects 
the  exaggerated  notions  of  the  importance  of  education,  yet  safe- 
guards us  against  underestimating  its  influence. 

7.  The  other  side  of  the  twofold  relation  between  history 
and  education  is  that  of  history  co-operating  with  education. 
Of  this  the  ancients  did  not,  indeed,  lose  sight,  but  as  all  their 
educational  activity  was  based  upon  historical  traditions,  they 
speculated  but  little  about  the  service  rendered  to  it  by  history. 
Modern  pedagogy,  in  endeavoring  to  correct  unhistorical  and 
individualistic  tendencies,  has  given  special  attention  to  this 
side  of  the  subject.  Education  employs  the  forces  of  history, 
for  it  makes  the  growing  child  a  historical  being,  raises  it  to  the 
level  of  the  present,  and  allows  it,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  run 
during  the  short  years  of  its  youthful  plasticity  the  laborious 
course  that  mankind  has  run  throughout  the  long  ages  of  his- 
tory. There  is  a  special  pleasure  in  speculating  along  these 
lines,  in  discovering  the  analogies  between  the  development  of 
the  race  and  of  the  individual,  in  order  to  ascertain  principles 
apt  to  throw  new  light  on  the  educative  process.  Pestalozzi 
was  much  given  to  such  reflections,  but  his  system  would  not 
admit  of  them.  Herbart  was  influenced  by  them  when  he 
compares  the  heroic  age  of  Greece  to  the  early  years  of  a  boy 


INTRODUCTION  55 

and  suggests  that  education  begin  with  the  reading  of  the  Odys- 
sey,  whose  heroes  represent  a  world  akin  to  the  dreams  of  a 
boy's  fancy,  proceed  with  the  naive  narrative  of  Herodotus  to 
the  glories  of  Greek  literature,  and  take  up  the  disputes  of 
Rome's  constitutional  history  when  the  mind  of  the  young 
man  turns  to  serious  tasks  and  problems.1  Modern  evolution 
introduced  a  new  viewpoint.  It  holds  that  the  human  embryo 
passes  through  all  the  stages  of  lower  animal  life  before  it  finally 
arrives  at  the  human  form;  and,  analogously,  looks  on  the  devel- 
opment of  the  child  and  youth  as  a  successive  passing  through 
all  the  types  of  ma/n  represented  by  historical  development,  and 
completed  in  the  present.  The  evolutionists  think  that  it  is 
natural  for  a  boy  to  pass  through  antiquity  as  the  period  when 
the  human  race  most  enjoyed  the  contemplation  of  beauty,  and 
that  a  defective  development  would  result  from  making  the 
study  of  the  natural  sciences  precede  that  of  the  classics.2  The 
evolutionist  methods  of  teaching  are  modelled  along  genetic 
lines,  so  as  to  embrace  successively  all  the  stages  which  knowl- 
edge has  passed  through  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Thus,  the 
pupils  are  first  taught  to  assume  the  shape  of  the  earth  to  an- 
swer Homer's  description,  later  to  adopt  Ptolemy's  view's,  and 
finally  the  Copernican  system.  In  geometry  they  would,  with 
the  predecessors  of  Pythagoras,  first  compare  the  squares  of  the 
sides  of  certain  triangles  before  taking  up  the  theorem  of  Py- 
thagoras. In  natural  science  they  first  study  the  facts  of  nature 
with  regard  to  man's  needs  and  advantages,  but  at  a  more 
mature  period  they  discard  all  considerations  of  relativity  and 
study  facts  and  events  objectively  and  independently  of  any 
particular  point  of  view. 

The  science  of  education  will  profit  by  the  study  of  the 
interrelations  between  education  and  history,  provided  the  es- 
sential differences  existing  between  the  development  of  the  race 
and  that  of  the  individual  are  duly  emphasized.  The  path 
along  which  we  lead  the  young  is  not  so  firmly  fixed  within  the 
lines  that  mark  the  way  humanity  has  taken  in  its  course,  that 
we  are  unable  to  bend  it  this  way  or  that  by  our  own  views 
and  principles.  If  it  is  true  that  education  is  a  compendious 
repetition  of  universal  history,  it  is  equally  true  that  we  teachers 

1  Herbart's  A  B  C  of  Sense-Perception  and  Introductory  Works,  transl.  by  Eck- 
off,  New  York,  1896,  p.  84;  Science  of  Education,  transl.  by  H.M.  and  E.  Felkin, 
London,  1892,  p.  74;  Outlines  of  Educational  Doctrine,  transl.  by  A.L.  Lange  with 
annotations  by  Charles  de  Garmo,  New  York,  1901,  pp.  282  ff. 

Lilienfeld,  Gedanken  iiber  die  Sozialwissenschaft  der  Zukunft,  1873,  I,  274. 


56  INTRODUCTION 

make  the  compendium  in  the  light  of  our  own  ideals.  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  development  of  the  race  is  not  sufficient  to  enable 
us  to  interpret  the  development  of  the  individual,  for  the  former 
requires  to  be  interpreted  no  less  than  the  latter.  The  philos- 
ophy of  history,  in  attempting  to  interpret  the  evolution  of  the 
human  race,  must  necessarily  take  its  stand  on  certain  religious 
and  ethical  principles,  and  consequently  is  on  the  same  level 
with  pedagogy,  not  superior  to  it.  The  naturalistic  view,  which 
is  too  ready  to  attribute  the  works  of  free  will  to  nature,  may 
throw  some  light  on  the  problems  involved,  but  can  never  solve 
them. 


IV. 


i.  In  the  preceding  pages  we  attempted  to  sketch  the  lines 
which  the  science  of  education  must  follow  in  order  that  it  may 
be  raised  to  the  level  of  the  allied  sciences  that  deal  with  human 
actions.  Most  of  what  has  been  said  refers  to  pedagogy  as  well 
as  to  what  the  Germans  call  Didakfik,  but,  as  we  purpose  to 
treat  in  the  present  work  only  of  the  latter,  i.e.,  the  science  of 
education  in  its  sociological  and  historical  aspects,1  it  will  not 
be  out  of  place  to  indicate,  briefly,  in  how  far  its  subject-matter 
differs  from  that  of  pedagogy  in  general. 

An  erroneous  conception  of  the  union  that  ought  to  exist 
between  the  social  and  the  individualistic  view  of  education 
results,  as  a  general  rule,  in  the  curtailing  of  either  the  social 
or  the  individual  field  of  labor.  If  interest  in  social  institutions 
preponderates,  men  are  likely  to  ascribe  undue  importance  to 
the  existing  educational  apparatus,  which  represents  the  fruits 
of  organized  efforts,  to  look  on  education  as  a  mere  complement 
to  culture,  and  to  treat  pedagogy  as  an  appendix  to  the  science 
of  education.  If  the  viewpoint  be  individualistic,  and  education 
be  considered  as  consisting  in  forming  the  individual  according 
to  a  preconceived  ideal,  then  there  is  danger  of  ignoring  the 
broad  and  diversified  elements  of  education,  and  the  science  of 
education  will  become  a  part  of  pedagogy  and  receive  inadequate 
treatment.  The  first  of  these  errors  we  meet  in  the  iyth  cen- 

1  The  term  "didactics"  has  in  English  pedagogy  taken  on  an  unfavorable 
meaning,  referring  to  cut  and  dried  methods,  as  opposed  to  organic  education; 
whereas,  in  Willmann's  use  of  it,  it  has  quite  another  connotation.  And  so,  for 
want  of  a  better  term,  we  shall  substitute  for  the  German  Didaktik  the  English 
science  of  education.  (Tr.) 


INTRODUCTION  57 

tury,  to  which  age  we  owe  .the  idea  of  a  Didactica?  or  "Art  of 
Teaching"  (Lekrkunst}. 

It  was  not  merely  their  taste  for  euphonious  and  novel  terms 
that  led  the  educational  reformers  of  the  age  to  invent  a  new 
name  for  their  science,  but  rather  the  fact  that  their  efforts  went 
beyond  the  labors  of  the  past  and  tried  to  embrace  the  entire 
system  of  education  as  one  harmonious  whole.  This  one  whole 
embraces,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  systematic  presentation  of 
the  new  ideas  by  Comenius  in  his  Didactica  Magna,  the  work 
of  moral  training.  Comenius'  concept  of  teaching  includes  train- 
ing in  morality  and  virtue,2  the  educational  influences  of  the 
home,3  and  care  for  the  body,  as  important  factors  in  sucessful 
schooling.4  Thus  the  Great  Didactic  really  presents  a  complete 
system  of  pedagogy,  though  its  specific  functions  are  not  all 
developed. 

The  same  mistake  was  made,  on  a  larger  scale,  by  the  con- 
temporary exponents  of  political  science  when  dealing  with 
matters  educational.  To  them  the  school  system  is  the  main 
thing;  education  is  either  treated  under  that  head  or  lost  among 
the  measures  governing  the  discipline  and  morality  of  the  com- 
monwealth. Robert  von  Mohl  adopts  the  latter  policy;  Lorenz 
von  Stein,  the  former.  Stein's  treatment  lacks  clearness  be- 
cause he  neglects  to  distinguish  properly  between  refinement 
(Gesittung)  and  education,  between  moral  and  intellectual  as- 
similation, and  fails  to  assign  to  pedagogy  a  special  field  of 
activity.  His  definition  of  pedagogy  as  the  science  of  the  ac- 
quisition of  education  by  the  individual,  is  in  reality  a  defi- 
nition of  what  we  call  Didaktik,  or  rather  of  that  part  of  it  which 
treats  of  the  individual.  The  science  Stein 'postulates  would  be 
a  complete  Didaktik,  but  not  a  complete  pedagogy. 

2.  Herbart's  teachings  will  show  how  difficult  it  is  to  deter- 
mine from  the  individualistic  viewpoint  the  mutual  relationship 
between  pedagogy  and  Didaktik.  Herbart  considers  pedagogy 

1  Wolfgang  Ratke  is  probably  the  author  of  this  term,  as  he  assumed  the 
surname  of  didacticus.     At  all  events  the  term  came  into  general  use  in  course  of 
the  disputations  waged  about  Ratke's  educational  reforms.     It  is  an  abbreviation 
for  Methodus  Didactica,  this  complete  form  also  being  in  use.     The  I7th  century 
also  coined  the  terms  mnemonics,  cyclopedia  or  encyclopedia,  polymathy,  poly- 
history,  pansophy,  all  of  which  denote  undertakings  connected  with  current  edu- 
cational reforms.     The  terms  anthropology  and  psychology  may  also  be  traced  to 
this  age  of  polymathic  realism. 

2  Didactica  magna,  IV,  6;  XXIII  ff. 

3  Ib.,  XXVIII. 

4  Ib.,  XIV,  4  and  XV. 


58  INTRODUCTION 

as  the  superior  science  and  Didaktik  as  one  of  its  parts,  co-ordi- 
nate with  the  science  of  government  and  discipline.  The  first 
principle  of  his  Didaktik  is  the  concept  of  many-sided  interest 
to  be  evolved  from  the  idea  of  virtue.  Its  subject-matter  is 
limited  to  "educative  instruction,"  i.  <?.,  such  instruction  as 
renders  the  individual  conformable  to  the  ideal  of  virtue.  Peda- 
gogy is  not — and  therefore  its  didactic  part  much  less — con- 
cerned with  purposes  and  motives  that  lie  beyond  the  individual. 
The  social  arguments  advanced  in  favor  of  the  classical  studies — 
the  culture  of  the  higher  classes  of  society,  the  conservation  of 
venerable  and  time-honored  treasures  of  art  and  science — receive 
scant  favor  at  Herbart's  hands.  He  describes  them  as  "just  as 
unpedagogical  as  would  be  the  policy  of  giving  a  crowd  of  boys 
a  sound  trouncing  as  soon  as  the  new  fence  has  been  put  up,  so 
that  they  might  better  remember  the  boundaries."1  He  describes 
as  unpedagogical  and,  therefore,  as  outside  the  sphere  of  the 
Didaktik,  all  those  studies  "for  which  acquisition  of  wealth  and 
external  success  or  strong  personal  preferences  supply  the  mo- 
tives"; and  he  avers  the  same  of  those  studies  whose  only  con- 
cern is  the  tuto,  cito,  jucunde.1  Consequently  he  entirely  ex- 
cludes the  school  system  from  his  Didaktik,  saying  that  it  is 
"a  vast  and  difficult  subject  involving  not  merely  pedagogical 
principles  but  also  the  maintenance  of  learning,  the  dissemi- 
nation of  useful  information,  and  the  practice  of  indispensable 
arts."  From  this  last  point  of  view  he  assigns  the  system  of 
education  to  that  department  of  practical  philosophy  which 
deals  with  the  "system  of  civilization,"  which  is  but  one  of  a 
series  of  "social  ideas." 

An  unprejudiced  examination  of  these  teachings  will  reveal 
their  untenable  elements:  they  unduly  narrow  the  sphere  of 
Didaktik  by  considering  the  subject  of  teaching  from  one  point 
of  view  only  and  by  excluding  the  educative  process  as  a  whole. 
But  to  detach  from  this  whole  the  training  in  morality  and 
virtue  is  a  dangerous  proceeding,  for  it  breaks  many  of  the 
bonds  that  join  elements  which  belong  together.  The  aim  to 
make  the  young  moral  and  virtuous  by  means  of  studies  and 
practice,  is  lacking  in  none  of  the  historical  systems  of  edu- 
cation; but  nowhere  was  it  ever  isolated  or  regarded  as  the 

1  Padagogische  Schriften,  II,  470. 

2  Outlines  of  Educational  Doctrine,  p.  40. 

3  Ib.,  p.  321. 

4  Outlines  of  Educational*  Doctrine,  pp  .  1 1  ff . ;   Gesammelte  Werke,    edited    by 
Hartenstein,  VIII,  96;  IX,  424. 


INTRODUCTION 


only  legitimate  end.  It  was  always  joined  to  other  aims,  such  as 
to  impart  knowledge,  to  train  the  faculties,  to  equip  the  young 
for  the  battle  of  life  or  for  special  professions;  and  inseparably 
connected  with  all  these  diversified,  subjective,  and  changing 
aims  is  the  objective  and  impersonal  «end:  to  conserve  by  teach- 
ing and  learning  the  content  of  education  to  future  ages  and*  to 
fit  the  young  for  transmitting  the  intellectual  property  of  the 
race  to  their  descendants.  To  ignore  this  end  and  to  consider 
all  aims  except  the  training  to  virtue— which  is  made  the  moral 
end  KO.T  ££ox$v — as  heteronomous,  is  certainly  improper;  for 
to  develop  the  faculties  of  the  young,  to  prepare  them  for  ful- 
filling the  universal  law  of  work,  is  undoubtedly  a  moral  action; 
and  it  is  no  less  moral  to  conserve  the  intellectual  inheritance  of 
our  ancestors  by  transmitting  it  to  our  descendants.  Herbart, 
consequently,  despite  his  laudable  ethical  tendency,  fails  to 
meet  the  moral  requirements  of  educational  work,  and  to  recog- 
nize the  interrelation  of  moral  obligations  as  observed  in  history 
and  daily  life.  Neither  can  the  materials  of  teaching  be  divided 
into  such  as  serve  moral  ends  and  such  as  serve  external  pur- 
poses. All  studies  and  exercises  may  serve  a  moral  purpose, 
and  all  are  related  somehow  to  external  circumstances  and 
conditions. 

Thus  the  very  subject  of  education  compels  us  to  extend  the 
boundaries  of  this  science  on  all  sides;  but  even  if  we  extended 
it  beyond  the  individualistic  conception  of  Herbart,  it  would 
not  be  sufficient  to  cover  the  subject-matter  of  Didaktik.  From 
the  standpoint  of  the  moral  assimilation  of  the  young  we  cannot 
obtain  a  complete  view  of  the  acquisition  of  education  (Bil- 
dungserwerb]  and  the  organization  devoted  to  it;  and  it  was 
this  consideration  which  led  Herbart  to  incorporate  this  disci- 
pline into  his  "system  of  civilization."  But  he  fails  to  show 
that  this  "system  of  civilization"  has  any  basic  relationship  to 
education,  and  to  compare  the  collective  agencies  dealt  with  by 
the  former  with  the  educative  activities  and  processes  that  form 
the  subject-matter  of  the  latter.  Had  Herbart  succeeded  in 
doing  this — he  made  several  attempts1 — his  theory  would  have 
found  a  support  outside  of  pedagogy  and  the  problem  of  the 
Didaktik,  viz.,  education  in  its  social  and  individual  aspects, 
would  have  been  adequately  solved. 

3.  Schleiermacher's  ethics  aims  to  do  justice  to  the  great 
organisms  of  the  moral  world,  and  is  directly  opposed  to  the 

1  Especially  in  his  Erziehungskunst  in  the  Enzyklopadie  der  Philosophic;  Pdda- 
gogische  Schriften,  II,  452  ff. 


6O  INTRODUCTION 

individualistic  trend  of  Herbart's  philosophy — a  fact  which  ren- 
ders much  of  what  Schleiermacher  has  written  on  education  of 
particular  value.  He  considers  pedagogy  one  of  the  "technical 
disciplines"  which  branch  out  from  ethics,  and  says  that  it 
occupies  itself  with  answering  the  questions:  What  does  the 
older  generation  wish  to  do  with  the  young?  How  do  its  activ- 
ities correspond  with  its  aims?  Are  the  results  proportionate  to 
the  labor  expended?  Pedagogy,  he  teaches,  is  co-ordinate  and 
partly  coextensive  with  political  science,  which  is  engaged  in 
conserving  and  strengthening  the  State  in  the  midst  of  the 
changes  arising  from  the  succession  of  generations.  And  as  it 
belongs  to  the  general  problem  of  morals  to  conserve  the  life  of 
the  Church,  pedagogy  joins  hands  with  the  science  of  religious 
organization,  which  is  a  part  of  ethics.1  The  standpoint  for  the 
Didaktik  is  furnished  by  a  third  ethical  organism,  viz.,  "commu- 
nity of  language  and  knowledge."  This  community  is  grounded 
on  the  intellectual  interrelation  between  the  consciousness  of 
the  individual  and  that  of  the  commonwealth.  Its  basic  relation 
is  that  between  teaching  and  learning,  and  consists  in  the  trans- 
mission of  thoughts  from  mind  to  mind.  The  ethical  process  is 
carried  out  by  the  co-operation  of  invention  and  communication, 
by  the  concurrence  of  intellectual  superiority  on  the  one  hand 
with  the  possession  of  common  intellectual  treasures  on  the 
other.  The  medium  of  all.  these  activities  is  the  school,  in  the 
broadest  sense  of  the  term,  including  the  school  proper,  the 
university,  and  the  academy  of  sciences.  The  school,  thus  under- 
stood, is  the  agency  for  imparting  knowledge  to  the  individual 
as  well  as  to  the  community,  in  other  words,  for  imparting 
individuality  and  nationality.2 

The  organization  of  this  moral  community  is  the  object  of 
the  Didaktik,  which,  as  Schleiermacher  saya,  "deserves  to  re- 
ceive a  fuller»and  larger  treatment  and  should  make  a  thorough 
study  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  different  nations  and  their 
methods  of  imparting  knowledge. " 

Schleiermacher  carried  out  only  part  of  his  plan.  In  his 
Erziehungslehre  he  assigns  to  education  an  even  broader  basis 
than  in  the  methodological  discussions  just  quoted,  by  bringing 
it  into  relationship,  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  Church  and  the 
State,  and,  on  the  other,  with  the  community  of  language  and 
of  morals,  and  thus  establishes  a  relation  between  education  and 

1  Erziehungslehre,  edited  by  Platz,  1846,  7,  12  ff. 

2  Entwurf  eines  Systems  der  Sittenlehre,  edited  by  Schweizer,  1835,  §  179. 

3  Ib.,  §  282. 


INTRODUCTION  6 I 

the  "totality  of  intellectual  activities."  Schleiermacher  never 
developed  his  Didaktik,  either  because  he  thought  the  historical 
material  not  sufficiently  prepared,  or  because  he  distrusted  the 
adaptability  of  the  ethical  categories  which  he  had  arbitrarily 
deduced  from  his  metaphysical  principles. 

The  Didaktik,  if  developed  along  the  lines  traced  by  Schleier- 
macher, would  not  be  wanting  in  breadth,  but  its  problems 
would  lack  definiteness.  Dealing  ex  professo  with  the  imparting 
of  knowledge,  this  science  would  naturally  have  to  embrace  all 
that  is  implied  in  teaching  and  learning  as  well  as  in  tradition 
and  the  interchange  and  exchange  of  thoughts  and  ideas,  in- 
cluding the  science  of  language,  as  being  the  most  important 
means  of  communication,  and  the  sciences  that  deal  with  the 
use  of  language,  /.  <?.,  rhetoric,  poetics,  etc.  And  in  as  far  as  it 
would  cover  not  only  the  institutions  where  instruction  is  im- 
parted, but  also  those  engaged  in  scientific  research,  it  could  not 
confine  itself  to  the  subject  of  thought-transmission,  but  would 
have  to  treat,  besides,  of  the  creation  of  thought;  and  so  a  sci- 
ence of  unlimited  compass  would  be  the  result. 

In  spite  of  these  objections,  Schleiermacher's  ideas  are  highly 
stimulative  and  prolific.  Many  of  his  views  on  pedagogy  are 
essentially  correct,  and  his  false  notions  result  from  indefinite 
and  excessively  rigid  principles  rather  than  from  any  essential 
error  inherent  in  his  system. 

4.  The  relation  between  pedagogy  and  Didaktik  is  deter- 
mined by  the  respective  objects  of  the  two  sciences:  the  system 
of  moral  education  and  the  system  of  intellectual  education 
(Erziehungswesen  und  Bildungsweseri)  in  their  mutual  relations. 
Both  belong  to  the  same  sphere,  both  are  parts  of  the  one  great 
movement  which  tends  to  reconstruct  the  social  organism;  but 
within  this  sphere  they  appear  as  separate  and  co-ordinate 
disciplines.  The  system  of  moral  education  is  not  subject  nor 
supplementary  to  the  system  of  intellectual  education.  The 
purpose  of  the  former  is  to  watch  over  the  moral  life  that  is 
gradually  developing,  and  it  must  therefore  possess  its  own 
ethos,  its  own  motives,  aims,  instruments,  institutions;  and  all 
this  is  essentially  different  from  the  aim  of  the  system  of  intel- 
lectual education:  to  make  certain  intellectual  treasures  the 
common  property  of  all.  The  system  of  intellectual  education 
is  likewise  more  than  a  series  of  educational  agencies;  the  forces 
of  the  community  co-operating  for  cultural  purposes  create  an 

1   Erziehungslehre,  pp.  40,  108,  607. 


62  INTRODUCTION 

organism   which  cannot   be  understood   from   the  viewpoint  of 
moral  assimilation  alone. 

If  it  were  a  question  of  merely  describing  the  place  which 
these  two  sciences  occupy  in  the  national  life,  there  could  be  no 
question    that    they   occupy   entirely   different    positions.     The 
methods   adopted   by   a  nation   in   the  moral  education   of  its 
children  must  be  treated  in  connection  with  the  study  of  its 
political  and  social  institutions,  its  public  and  private  morality, 
and  its  religious  and  philosophical  views.     But  the  content  of 
the  nation's  culture,  all  that  which  is  considered  its  intellectual 
possession,  and  what  is  transmitted  in  the  schoolroom   and  else- 
where, must,  along  with  the  cultural  agencies,  be  dealt  with  in 
connection  with  the  study  of  the  nation's  intellectual  interests^ 
its   literature,   its   arts   and  sciences.     This   difference   becomes 
even  more  marked  when  we  consider  the  historical  presentation 
of  the   two  disciplines.     The   history  of  a   nation's   system   of 
moral  education  is  intimately  connected  with  the  history  of  its 
civilization,  the  history  of  its  manners  and  its  social  orders;  its 
viewpoint  is  mainly  ethnological,  because  it  must  show  how  the 
spirit  of  the  age  and  of  the  nation  have  influenced  the  provisions 
made  for  the  care  of  the  young.     The  history  of  intellectual 
education,  on  the  other  hand,  depends,  in  the  first  place,  on  the 
history  of  a  nation's  intellectual  life.     Its  principal  source  is  the 
history  of  literature,  for  this  reveals  most  directly  the  develop- 
ment of  national  culture;  and  when  the  history  of  intellectual 
education   chronicles    the   history   of  textbooks,   encyclopedias, 
and  all  writings  pertaining  to  culture,  it  will  itself  be  a  history 
of  literature  in  the  broadest  sense.     It  will  approach  a  history 
of  the  sciences  when  it  treats  historically  the  various  methods 
of  teaching  employed  at  different  times  in  the  schools.     But  it 
is  only  when  treating  of  the  institutions  of  general  education, 
especially  the  schools,  that  the  history  of  intellectual  education 
draws   upon   the   history  of  political    and   social   development. 
The  history  of  the  system  of  intellectual  education  must  also  be 
studied  from  the  viewpoint  of  ethnology,  for  it  must  trace  the 
relations  between  the  character  of  the  age  and  the  nation,  be- 
tween the  ideals  of,  and  efforts  for,  intellectual  education;  at 
the  same  time  it  must  study  the  process  of  hereditary  trans- 
mission, so  wonderful  at  times,  by  which  the  elements  of  intel- 
lectual education  are  passed  from  one  nation  to  another,  from 
one  age  to  another,  where  they  assemble  and  assume  new  and 
entirely  different  forms,  a  process  which  is  without  a  parallel  in 
the  system  of  moral  education. 


INTRODUCTION  63 

• 

This  difference  between  the  systems  of  moral  education  and 
intellectual  education,  so  clearly  marked  in  the  descriptive  and 
historical  treatment  of  the  two  subjects,  should  not  be  ignored 
when  studying  them  philosophically,  especially  since  good  re- 
sults will  flow  therefrom  for  deeper  speculation.  Not  only  are 
these  sciences  entirely  different  from  each  other  in  scope,  but 
their  individual  problems  require  different  methods  of  investi- 
gation. It  is  true  that  both  pedagogy  and  Didaktik  depend  in  a 
similar  way  on  psychology,  whether  the  latter  be  conceived  as 
treating  the  functions  of  the  soul,  or  as  the  (not  yet  fully  de- 
veloped) science  of  racial  types,  called  by  some  ethnology  (J. 
Stuart  Mill),  by  others  Charakterologie  (Bahnsen),  while  some 
consider  it  a  part  of  anthropology.  But  the  parts  of  psychology 
that  lend  support  to  pedagogy  and  Didaktik  respectively  are 
not  the  same.  Pedagogy  is  chiefly  concerned  with  the  higher 
and  lower  appetites  of  man,  with  the  will,  the  feelings,  the  moral 
type  or  character;  whereas  Didaktik  deals  with  his  intellectual 
faculties,  understanding  and  reason,  intellectual  types,  talents, 
and  abilities.  Whereas  the  former  is  mainly  concerned  with 
obtaining  a  psychological  view  of  man's  different  interests  and 
strives  to  ascertain  their  sources  and  the  causes  for  individual 
differences,  the  latter  is  taken  up  with  the  study  of  the  mental 
horizon  and  the  psychical  activities  that  constitute  it,  with  the 
special  abilities  and  the  special  trend  of  mind  that  are  respon- 
sible for  its  individuality. 

The  relation  of  the  two  sciences  to  ethics  is  likewise  different, 
the  relation  between  ethics  and  pedagogy  being  close,  while  that 
between  ethics  and  Didaktik  is  remote.  Both  deal  with  evalu- 
ations, with  motives,  problems,  and  intellectual  treasures  as  well 
as  with  the  elements  of  the  moral  personality.  But  pedagogy 
follows  the  development  of  the  moral  personality  in  all  its  points 
and  relations  and  explains  one  of  the  fundamental  conditions 
for  the  conservation  and  (indirectly)  the  production  of  all  moral 
treasures,  thus  throwing  light  on  the  problems  of  duty.  The 
Didaktik^  however,  contents  itself  with  considering  the  moral 
ends  of  life  as  completing  and  safeguarding  the  intellectual 
endeavors  with  which  it  is  concerned.  But  it  is  related  to 
other  philosophical  disciplines  that  are  foreign  to  the  domain  of 
pedagogy:  to  logic  as  being  the  canon  of  thought,  and  to  epis- 
temology,  the  science  of  the  metho.d  and  grounds  of  knowl- 
edge— a  relationship  which  is  desirable  indeed,  but,  at  present, 
not  yet  fully  realized. 


64  INTRODUCTION 

5.  In  attempting  to  raise  Didaktik  to  the  position  of  a  sci- 
ence complete  in  itself,  we  meet  still  greater  difficulties  than 
those  resulting  from  its  dependence  on  pedagogy,  which  we  have 
treated  in  the  preceding  pages.  These  difficulties  regard  not  so 
much  the  independence  of  our  science  as  the  feasibility  of  de- 
veloping it  according  to  some  adequate  standard  of  unity. 

The  very  nature  of  general  education  implies  that  its  content 
is  drawn  from  various  arts  and  sciences.  Education  comprises, 
in  its  more  developed  forms,  a  whole  series  of  elements,  each  of 
which  represents  a  more  or  less  extensive  field  of  research  or 
achievement.  Modern  higher  education  is  particularly  rich  in 
the  diversity  of  its  contents:  besides  the  historically  transmitted 
elements — the  philological  material  embodied  in  languages,  to- 
gether with  theology,  philosophy,  and  mathematics— it  comprises 
the  divers  elements  of  knowledge  belonging  to  the  historical, 
geographical,  and  natural  sciences  and,  finally,  technology,  mu- 
sic, and  gymnastics.  But  this  universal  tendency  of  modern 
education  precludes  the  possibility  of  attaining,  in  fields  so 
numerous  and  so  diverse,  anything  approaching  the  knowledge 
and  mastery  demanded  of  a  specialist.  The  man  of  culture  is 
content  with  a  general  knowledge  of  the  various  subjects;  he 
lays  claim  merely  to  have  an  open  mind  for  the  various  arts 
and  sciences,  without  professing  to  be  a  specialist  or  a  virtuoso. 
And  similarly,  general  education  rests  satisfied  with  removing 
only  the  elementary  difficulties  and  with  laying  a  foundation  of 
universal  knowledge;  it  fits  the  pupil  for  extending  and  intensi- 
fying his  knowledge  and  makes  his  mind  and  heart  alive  to  the 
charms  of  the  various  studies. 

While  the  course  of  general  studies  may  be  pardoned  for 
limiting  itself  to  the  elementary  and  popular,  the  same  may  not 
be  allowed  to  him  who  would  treat  professedly  of  education 
itself,  in  order  to  establish  a  science  of  general  education.  It 
seems  indispensable  that  such  a  one  be  perfectly  acquainted 
with  the  cultural  side  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  the  under- 
taking, therefore,  postulates  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
arts  and  sciences,  so  that  not  only  the  fruits  of  education  be 
known,  but  the  trees  that  produced  them.  He  who  would  pass 
judgment  on  the  cultural  content  of  studies,  on  the  methods  to 
be  followed  in  selecting,  ordering,  and  treating  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  various  studies,  must  be  at  home  in  all  the  arts 
and  sciences,  and  his  knowledge  must  possess  the  universality  of 
culture  and  the  thoroughness  of  science. 


INTRODUCTION  65 

These  demands  could  be  satisfied,  in  some  degree,  in  the  age 
that  produced  the  idea  and  the  beginnings  of  our  science  of 
education.  In  the  lyth  century  it  was  the  order  of  the  day  to 
strive  after  encyclopedic  knowledge*  the  terms  polyhistory, 
polymathy,  panmathy,  pansophy,  cyclopedia  had  a  great  vogue, 
and  of  the  didacticians  at  least  a  few — such  as  Joachim  Jung, 
Amos  Comenius,  J.  J.  Becher — commanded  vast  stores  of  eru- 
dition, both  general  and  special.  And  in  the  i8th  century 
Johann  Mathias  Gesner,  in  his  celebrated  Gottingen  lecture, 
Isagoge  in  eruditionem  UrtiversaJem,  laid  down  general  directions 
for  studying  which  are  as  remarkable  for  exact  knowledge  as  for 
depth.  In  the  same  century  Johann  August  Ernesti,  theologian 
and  philologist,  in  his  Initia  doctrines  solidioris  (first  edition, 
1734)  dealt  ably  with  the  philosophical  disciplines  as  well  as 
with  mathematics  and  physics.  To-day  science  has  pushed  out 
its  boundaries  so  far  and  its  various  departments  require  so 
many  special  methods  of  research,  that  it  is  obviously  impossible 
for  any  individual  to  encompass  the  domain  of  knowledge  in  its 
entirety.  To  speak  of  universal  scholarship  or  of  encyclopedic 
research  is  to-day  a  contradiction  in  terms,  as  we  consider  the 
labors  of  a  scholar  to  be  confined  to  a  special  field  of  research, 
and  refuse  to  regard  as  science  any  attempt  at  covering  the 
whole  "orbis  doctrinae. "  We  consider  " polymathy"  as  neces- 
sarily connected  with  shallowness  and  incoherency.  The  man 
professing  to  have  universal  knowledge  is  to  the  modern  mind 
the  very  personification  of  vain  superficiality.  To  attempt  to 
create  an  art  of  teaching  everything  to  everybody,  in  imitation 
of  the  Renaissance,  would  appear  to  most  people  to-day  as 
building  a  castle  in  the  air,  and  any  such  undertaking  would 
speedily  incur  condemnation  of  modern  scholarship. 

Modern  scholars  are  quite  generally  of  the  opinion  that  the 
specialist,  being  conversant  with  the  matter  and  method  of  his 
science,  should  also  determine  the  matter  and  method  for  its 
pursuit  in  the  schoolroom.  They  contend  that  the  specialist 
alone  can  be  a  safe  guide  in  this  regard,  and  that  the  theorist, 
if  he  forsake  his  directions  and  speculate  along  general  lines,  is 
inevitably  doomed  to  grave  mistakes  and  final  failure.  Hence 
the  only  science  of  education  that  could  make  any  pretensions 
to  scientific  reliability  should  be  the  result  of  the  combined 
efforts  of  a  large  number  of  specialists,  each  a  master  in  his 
chosen  field.  Anything  beyond  this  would  merely  be  an  airy 
nothing,  a  something  subject  to  continual  changes  by  the  spe- 
cialists, which  would  make  it  impossible  to  establish  a  harmoni- 
5 


66  INTRODUCTION 

ous  science  of  education,  one  that  might  assign  to  each  science 
its  share  in  the  educative  process.  Ever  since  the  training  of  a 
specialist  has  been  demanded  of  the  prospective  teacher,  these 
ideas  have  found  acceptance  among  educationists,  and  many  of 
the  latter  look  askance  at  a  science  of  general  education,  even 
though  it  be  fathered  by  authorities  as  eminent  as  Herbart  or 
Schleiermacher;  and  they  defend  their  position  by  contending 
that  any  such  science  would  require  the  teacher  to  dabble  in 
subjects  foreign  to  his  profession.  Educationists,  likewise,  are 
learning  to  specialize  each  in  his  own  subject.  The  general  prin- 
ciples of  education  are  left  to  writers  on  pedagogy,  and  its  spe- 
cial problems,  /.  <?.,  such  as  deal  with  particular  methods  of 
teaching  or  individual  branches,  are  handled  by  writers  in  spe- 
cial fields;  and  so  the  science  of  education,  hedged  in  between 
the  adjoining  field  and  the  ground  intersected  by  special  studies, 
seems  to  be  denied  the  room  necessary  for  it  to  grow  and  to 
expand. 

6.  Yet  we  cannot  allow  the  educational  problems  that  are 
interrelated  with  one  another  to  be  simply  ignored.  It  is  as- 
suredly necessary  in  education  and  in  the  science  of  education, 
if  anywhere,  to  keep  a  firm  hold  on  the  bond  that  joins  the 
parts  together  into  one  harmonious  whole.  In  this  field,  no 
work,  be  it  ever  so  specialized,  can  forego  the  application  of 
general  principles; -it  must  take  into  consideration  the  end  of 
education,  the  relation  of  one  subject  to  others,  the  stages  of 
the  pupil's  development,  the  general  agencies  of  education,  the 
prevailing  customs  of  the  schools,  the  intellectual  interests  of 
the  age;  and  hence  the  work  of  the  specialist  is  never  independ- 
ent of  general  educational  principles,  and  the  value  of  his  work 
depends  as  much  on  his  familiarity  with  the  above  conditions 
as  on  his  mastery  of  his  special  field.  Unless  there  is  unity  and 
harmony  in  fundamental  principles,  the  combined  efforts  of  ever 
so  many  specialists  cannot  produce  one  harmonious  whole;  but 
these  fundamental  principles  can  be  arrived  at  only  by  a  specu- 
lation that  takes  into  account  the  whole,  and  not  merely  a  part, 
of  education.  The  most  pressing  problems  of  our  present-day 
education  do  not  call  for  the  ability  of  the  specialist,  but  rather 
for  the  broadmindedness  of  such  a  scholar  as  will  be  able  to 
survey  the  whole  field.  It  is  at  present  more  necessary  to 
show  how  the  various  sciences  are  interrelated  to  one  an- 
other and  to  the  whole  of  education,  to  assign  to  each  its  own 
function  in  regard  to  what  is  expected  of  the  whole,  than 
to  reform  the  methods  of  teaching  individual  subjects.  The 


INTRODUCTION  67 

curricula  of  our  schools  cannot  be  charged  with  not  being  suffi- 
ciently scientific;  neither  are  our  teachers,  on  the  whole,  poorly 
equipped  in  their  own  special  branches.  The  defect  lies  rather  in 
this,  that  our  curricula  do  not  represent  an  organic  whole,  but  a 
disjointed  mass  of  what  is  in  its  parts  excellent  enough;  and  our 
teachers,  though  they  be  trained  specialists,  are  ignorant  of  the 
functions  of  the  college  or  university  as  a  whole;  they  have  an 
eye  only  for  their  own  narrow  field  and  know  nothing  of  the 
valuable  work  performed  by  the  professors  of  sciences  other 
than  their  own.  The  remedy  for  this  state  of  affairs  obviously 
does  not  consist  in  more  specialization,  nor  in  improving  the 
methods  of  teaching  individual  subjects,  but  rather  in  empha- 
sizing and  applying  the  general  principles  of  the  science  of 
education. 

There  is  a  widely  spread  opinion  that  the  science  of  edu- 
cation, because  of  its  general  tendency  and  indefinite  scope,  is 
bound  to  be  flabby  and  vague,  satisfied  with  dreamy  specu- 
lations out  of  touch  with  actual  conditions.  When  we  contrast 
the  clear-cut  and  practical  directions  given  by  certain  special- 
ists with  the  vaporings  of  some  educational  theorists,  we  must 
confess  that  this  opinion  is  not  entirely  groundless.  It  is  re- 
freshing to  turn  from  the  glittering  generalities  of  Basedow  and 
Trapp  to  F.  A.  Wolf's  Consilia  scholastica^  which  have  a  solid 
foundation  in  the  wisdom  of  past  ages.  The  principles  laid 
down  by  Jacob  Grimm  and  Philip  Wackernagel  for  the  teaching 
of  German  dealt  a  deathblow  to  the  formalism  of  the  doctrin- 
aires, who  had  carried  out  Pestalozzi's  ideas  on  language  teach- 
ing. Even  the  subtle  distinctions  of  Herbart,  which  overlook 
the  specific  character  of  individual  branches  and  do  not  attend 
sufficiently  to  the  practical  imparting  of  knowledge,  must  give 
way  to  the  wise  suggestions  of  Nagelsbach,  Roth,  Palmer,  etc. 
It  has  been  observed  that  the  science  of  education  generally 
gained  in  strength  and  definiteness  when  it  came  in  touch  with 
any  special  science — philology,  theology,  history,  etc. — and  it  is 
therefore  but  natural  to  expect  that  such  intercourse  will  prove 
helpful  for  its  future  development. 

It  would,  however,  be  wrong  to  conclude  that  a  systematic 
study  of  general  education  is  unprofitable.  To  illustrate:  to 
pass  judgment  on  Philanthropinism,  we  must  regard  not  only 
its  results,  but  also  its  aims  and  objects.  It  was  undoubtedly  a 
great  achievement  of  the  Philanthropinists  to  have  brought  out 
the  fact  that  to  obtain  perfect  results  in  the  school  it  is  neces- 
sary to  correlate  the  various  branches,  and  also  to  adapt  them, 


68  INTRODUCTION 

as  far  as  possible,  to  the  natural  inclinations  of  the  pupils.  In 
this  the  Philanthropinists  were  instrumental  in  banishing  from 
the  schoolroom  many  of  the  violent,  and  even  brutal,  practices 
of  former  ages;  and  their  very  errors  have  stimulated  their 
followers  to  search  more  deeply,  and  thus  proved  the  occasion 
of  improved  methods  of  teaching. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  Pestalozzi's  system,  though  it 
largely  culminated  in  formalism.  Pestalozzi's  aim  was  to  dis- 
cover the  basic  elements  of  the  elementary  school  branches, 
with  the  elementary  mental  activities  corresponding  to  them, 
and  to  shape  the  content  of  education  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring 
about  the  closest  possible  correlation  between  the  elements  of 
instruction  and  the  activities  of  the  mind,  the  mind  acquiring 
the  mastery  of  the  materials  of  education  by  a  process  of  psychic 
activities  that  succeed  one  another  with  internal  necessity. 
Pestalozzi  here  attained  a  depth  beyond  that  attained  by  any 
scientific  specialist  in  outlining  methods  of  teaching.  And  his 
conception  has  not  only  been  a  gain  to  the  science  of  education, 
but  has  produced  results  of  far-reaching  importance  for.  the 
various  subjects.  The  object-lessons  introduced  into  the  teaching 
of  geometry,  which  supply  a  defect  of  Euclid's  system,  are  one 
result;  mental  arithmetic,  and  the  reform  of  the  teaching  of 
drawing  and  geography  are  other  results.  But  his  theory  has 
accomplished  still  more;  it  has  deeply  influenced  the  scientific 
study  of  geography,  for  Karl  Ritter,  the  father  of  modern  ge- 
ography, conceived  the  idea  for  his  system,  which  established 
the  treatment  of  geography  as  a  study  and  a  science,  from  his 
intercourse  with  Pestalozzi  and  the  application  of  his  method. 
Though  this  is  a  solitary  case  in  history  where  the  science  of 
education  has  proved  the  inspiration  of  scientific  research,  it  is 
proof  sufficient  that  this  science  is  at  times  in  a  position  to 
make  return  in  its  own  ideas  for  what  it  receives  from  the  sci- 
entific research  workers.1 

1  Kramer,  Karl  Kilter,  Ein  Lebensbild,  I,  307,  quotes  the  following  passage  from 
one  of  Ritter's  letters  concerning  his  geography:  "What  first  prompted  me  to  under- 
take this  work  was  the  desire  to  fulfill  a  promise  I  had  made  to  Pestalozzi,  to  ap- 
ply his  methods  in  writing  a  textbook  of  geography,  which  was  to  be  introduced 
into  his  Institute;  but  upon  beginning  to  do  so,  I  found  that  all  the  attempts  pre- 
viously made  in  this  field  were  but  patchwork,  depending  on  chance  instead  of 
science.  Imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  method  (the  methodists  themselves  know 
nothing  of  geography)  which  disdains  arbitrariness,  I  sought  what  was  necessary, 
and  found  it  in  the  midst  of  the  geographical  chaos,  and  once  I  had  caught  the 
thread,  the  whole  skein  unravelled  itself."  See  the  quotation  (ibid.,  II,  146*)  from 
Vulliemin,  Le  Chretien  evangelique,  1869,  p.  24:  "C'est  a  Pestalozzi  que  Ritter  fait 


INTRODUCTION  69 

Herbart's  science  of  education  is  similarly  fruitful  in  results, 
even  though  the  impartial  critic  will  discover  deficiencies  in  the 
theory  itself  and  in  the  treatment  of  individual  sciences.  Let 
every  one  who  is  tempted  to  apply  too  exacting  a  standard  to 
Herbart's  efforts,  remember  Goethe's  words,  which  may  well  be 
applied  to  all  sweeping  condemnations  of  great  works  ^'Descend- 
ants should  beware  of  nibbling  fastidiously  at  the  great  works  of 
their  teachers  and  masters,  and  of  making  demands  of  which 
they  themselves  would  never  have  dreamed  if  these  great  men 
had  not  accomplished  so  much  as  to  tempt  those  coming  after 
them  to  demand  still  more. "  No  specialist  could  furnish  all 
that  Herbart  supplies:  the  farsighted  view  of  the  objects  of 
education;  the  insistent  demand  that  all  educational  influences 
converge  in  the  pupil's  circle  of  thought  and  there  blend  into 
one  harmonious  result,  which  shall  be,  not  only  intellectual,  but 
also  ethical.  Herbart  has  revealed  the  sorest  spot  in  modern 
education,  and  if  his  scalpel  now  has  to  be  exchanged  for  one  of 
a  more  recent  make,  or  if  the  operation  must  be  performed  in  a 
different  way,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Herbart  did  humanity  a 
great  service  in  demonstrating  the  urgent  need  for  a  radical 
cure. 

7.  There  are  certain  permanent  problems  and  ever-recur- 
ring questions  that  constitute  the  fixed  centre  of  the  science  of 
education  and  form  its  proper  field  of  research;  but  along  the 
periphery  of  the  circle  this  science  touches  the  boundaries  of 
many  other  sciences,  and  thus  it  will  never  lack  opportunities 
for  specializing.  To  ignore  this  promising  field  in  order  to  con- 
sider the  centre  alone,  would  be  as  foolish  as  to  ignore  the  cen- 
tral problems  for  the  sake  of  devoting  exclusive  attention  to 
special  features.  Every  human  problem  requires  the  co-opera- 
tion of  many  hands  and  many  heads,  and  no  problem,  especially 
in  the  field  of  education,  can  be  solved  without  being  viewed 
from  different  angles.  The  specialist  has  a  right  to  be  heard; 
but  if  he  wishes  to  serve  the  whole,  he  must  be  well  versed  in 


remonter  1'impulsion  premiere  a  son  esprit  et  la  principale  part  de  ce  qui'l  y  a  de 
meilleur  dans  son  oeuvre.  Quarante  ans  apres  son  sejour  a  Yverdon  nous  1'avons 
entendu  le  declarer  avec  bonheur:  'Pestalozzi,'  nous  disait-il,  'ne  savait  pas  en 
geographic  ce  qu'en  sait  un  enfant  de  nos  ecoles  primaires;  ce  n'en  est  pas  moins 
de  lui  que  j'ai  le  plus  appris  en  cette  science;  car  c'est  en  1'ecoutant,  que  j'ai  senti 
s'eveiller  en  moi  1'instinct  des  methodes  naturelles;  c'est  lui  qui  m'a  ouvert  la  voie 
et  ce  qu'il  m'a  ete  donne  de  faire,  je  me  plais  a  le  lui  rapporter  comme  lui  appart- 
enant,'"  Cf.  ibid.,  I,  275,  and  Ritter's  Erdkunde,  Vol.  I,  Introduction. 
1  Werke  Ausg.  letzter  Hand,  1830,  XXXVII,  p.  62. 


7O  INTRODUCTION 

the  science  of  education,  /'.<?.,  be  familiar  with  the  principles  that 
govern  the  work  of  education  as  a  whole. 

It  seems  but  natural  to  demand  in  turn  of  the  educationist 
that  he  have  a  general  knowledge  of  the  sciences;  but  the  un- 
precedented development  of  modern  science  renders  this  im- 
possible, and,  really,  in  our  conception  of  the  science  of  edu- 
cation it  is  not  necessary.  The  educationists  of  the  Renaissance 
defined  Didactica  as  the  art  of  teaching,  and  undertook  to  out- 
line general  and  detailed  methods  for  all  the  subjects  taught  in 
the  schools.  From  this  point  of  view  it  was  perfectly  legitimate 
to  demand  that  every  teacher  should  be  a  master  of  all  branches 
of  his  science.  We  take  a  different  view.  We  define  Didaktik 
as  the  science  of  general  education  and  as  such  it  need  make  no 
pretensions  to  master  all  the  practical  features  of  the  organized 
work  of  teaching,  but  may  be  satisfied  with  something  less. 
The  science  of  education  must  undoubtedly  be  equal  to  the 
solution  of  far-reaching  problems;  it  must  be  able  to  show  how 
science  becomes  transformed  into  education,  how  its  content 
can  be  made  the  property  of  the  mind,  and  what  conditions 
must  obtain  to  make  the  work  of  teaching  fruitful  of  results. 
But  these  and  similar  problems  can  fortunately  be  solved  with- 
out an  encyclopedic  knowledge,  which  is  impossible  for  any  one 
man  to  acquire.  A  limited  knowledge  of  the  different  sciences 
will  suffice,  if  it  be  but  rightly  applied.  To  understand  how 
science  becomes  education,  it  is  necessary  to  regard  the  process 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  former;  but  the  main  requisite  is  to 
examine  the  process  closely  in  one  field  in  order  to  enable  the 
mind  to  grasp  analogous  processes  as  described  by  specialists  as 
happening  in  other  fields.  The  educative  agencies  should  fur- 
thermore be  studied  concretely  as  operative  in  a  particular 
field,  not  to  serve  as  a  rigid  schema  to  the  mind,  but  rather  as 
a  key  for  unlocking  other  gates.  The  methods  to  be  followed  in 
imparting  the  contents  of  the  various  sciences  will  be  discovered 
in  the  same  way:  we  begin  our  inquiry  at  one  special  point, 
follow  up,  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  the  divers  ramifications  of 
the  subject,  not  neglecting  to  call  upon  the  specialists  for  assist- 
ance whenever  we  find  ourselves  unequal  to  the  task.  The 
science  of  education  does  not  require  the  investigator  to  ex- 
periment in  all  fields,  but  insists  that,  while  working  in  a  limited 
field,  he  should  acquire  the  habit  of  putting  the  right  questions, 
first,  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  object,  secondly,  in  regard 
to  the  phenomena  that  constitute  the  general  problems,  and, 
thirdly,  inquiring  of  the  specialists  whenever  his  own  knowledge 


INTRODUCTION  7 1 

proves  inadequate.  Hence  the  objection  that  Didaktik  demands 
two  incompatible  prerequisites — a  universal  mastery  of  the  sci- 
ences and  profound  scientific  research — may  be  solved  by  saying 
that  only  the  latter  is  strictly  required,  whereas  the  universal 
mastery  implies  no  more  than  that  the  mind  be  receptive  to- 
wards all  the  sciences  and  ready  to  fill  in  the  lacunae  in  its  own 
knowledge  with  the  information  supplied  by  specialists.  The 
educationist,  then,  may  safely  adopt  the  well-known  principle  of 
scientific  research:  "In  uno  habitandum^  in  ceteris  versandum." 

But  is  this  demanded  receptivity  a  remnant  of  universalism, 
a  spur  driving  the  mind  beyond  the  bounds  assigned,  and  there- 
fore a  serious  menace  to  scientific  progress,  since  it  is  precisely 
the  demarcation  of  sciences  that  has  proved  such  a  valuable 
principle  of  modern  scholarship,  making  possible  the  division  of 
labor?  This  question  may  be  answered  by  another,  viz.:  Does 
modern  science  owe  its  success  to  this  principle  of  the  division 
of  labor  alone,  or  is  that  great  success  due  in  part  to  such  prin- 
ciples as  stand  in  direct  contrast  to  the  division  of  labor,  and 
practically  negative  it?  Recent  scientific  research  has,  indeed, 
accomplished  much  by  dividing  previously  whole  and  undivided 
circles  of  knowledge,  into  sectors  and  segments;  but  it  has  at 
the  same  time  drawn  new  circles  and  has  joined  such  as  were 
formerly  separate,  gaining  new  light  from  the  points  of  inter- 
section. We  have  in  the  course  of  these  discussions  mentioned 
several  sciences  that  owe  their  existence  to  the  joining  together 
of  departments  of  knowledge,  which  were  formerly  foreign  to 
one  another,  and  which  have  for  their  methodological  principle 
the  combination  of  different  kinds  of  knowledge.  Sociology,  for 
instance,  obtains  its  general  view  of  social  phenomena  by  com- 
bining the  findings  of  the  political  sciences  with  those  of  the 
history  of  civilization,  anthropology,  psychology,  ethics,  and 
even  the  natural  sciences;  and  if  we  insisted  that  the  sociologist 
should  confine  his  researches  to  one  of  these  fields — because  he 
can  never  expect  to  become  proficient  in  more  than  one — it 
would  mean  the  end  of  his  study  of  sociology.  Ethnological 
psychology  consists  entirely  in  combining  the  matter  and  the 
findings  of  sciences  foreign  to  one  another  (philology,  linguistics, 
ethnography,  psychology,  history  of  civilization,  etc.)  in  such  a 
way  that  all  the  various  data  are  considered  from  viewpoints 
that  tend  to  harmonize  them.  The  modern  science  of  individual 
psychology  also  has  its  basis  and  source  of  material  in  hetero- 
geneous fields,  in  the  natural  sciences  and  in  the  moral  sciences, 
and  must  draw  especially  upon  the  latter,  because  it  is  they 


72  INTRODUCTION 

that  seek  in  the  activities  of  the  community  the  causes  of  indi- 
vidual psychical  phenomena  (vide  supra,  pp.  3 1  ff.).  The  charac- 
teristic feature  of  modern  geography,  as  established  by  Karl 
Ritter,  is  that  it  is  neither  a  purely  historical,  nor  a  purely 
natural  science,  but  partakes  of  the  character  of  both;  Ritter 
presented  the  earth's  surface  in  its  relations  to  nature  and  man, 
and  as  the  foundation  of  the  study  of  the  physical  and  historical 
sciences. 

No  one-  would  charge  these  sciences,  which  have  compassed 
so  many  different  fields  of  research,  with  having  attempted  too 
ambitious  a  task.  The  science  of  education  may  consequently 
claim  the  same  liberty,  and  with  even  more  reasons  than  the 
sciences  mentioned,  because  it  contents  itself  with  a  more  lim- 
ited mastery  of  topics  lying  outside  its  own  special  range  of 
inquiry. 


8.  Having  established  the  independence  and  the  unity  of  the 
science  of  education,  it  remains  to  indicate  briefly  the  plan  we 
have  adopted  in  dealing  with  it  in  accordance  with  the  method- 
ological principles  laid  down  above. 

The  object  of  this  science  is  the  process  of  education  as  it 
appears  both  in  the  systems  of  education  which  represent  the 
joint  efforts  of  a  community,  and  in  the  acquiring  of  an  edu- 
cation which  represents  the  efforts  of  the  individual. 

The  system  of  education  may  be  viewed  both  as  an  organism 
and  as  an  organ.  It  is  an  organism  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  relatively 
complete  whole  of  institutions  and  agencies  for  imparting  edu- 
cation. It  is  an  organ  in  respect  to  the  social  body  of  which  it 
performs  a  function.  We  must  study  the  system  of  education, 
first,  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  variety  of  agencies  which  it  joins 
in  one  whole;  and,  secondly,  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  historical 
agencies  responsible  for  this  variety,  /'.  <?.,  in  respect  to  the 
changes  it  has  undergone  in  course  of  time. 

The  acquiring  of  an  education  is  essentially  a  conscious  and 
free  act,  vitalized  by  its  own  special  end  in  the  light  of  which  it 
must  be  judged.  Materially  the  acquiring  of  an  education  ap- 
pears as  varied  as  the  sources  whence  the  educational  content  is 
derived,  and  hence  it  will  be  our  aim  to  discover  the  sources  of 
the  material  elements  of  education.  Further  points  of  study 
are,  first,  the  form,  which  the  subject-matter  assumes,  in  keep- 
ing with  its  own  nature  and  with  the  purpose  of  the  educative 


INTRODUCTION 


73 


process;  then,  the  various  didactic  aids  determined  by  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  soul  and. the  psychical  functions  as  well  as  ethnol- 
ogical factors — differences  in  the  adaptability  to  education  and 
the  stages  of  development.  Thus  our  method  of  treatment  may 
follow  the  topics  indicated  by  the  four  principles  of  Aristotle, 
though  we  must  change  the  order  in  which  he  enumerates  them. 

In  determining  the  order  of  our  treatment  of  these  four 
points  (end,  matter,  form,  means)  we  shall  have  to  bear  in  mind 
that  we  cannot  separate  education  as  a  system  from  the  acquir- 
ing of  an  education,  because  the  two  are  mutually  interdepend- 
ent (supra,  pp. 31  ff.).  To  bring  out  this  fact,  we  shall  insert  the 
part  dealing  with  the  acquiring  of  an  education  (Bildungserwerb] 
in  the  middle  of  the  treatment  given  to  the  system  of  education: 
the  historical  treatment  of  the  system  of  education  will  come 
first;  and  the  sketch  of  the  whole  system  of  education,  showing 
at  the  same  time  its  ramifications  into  the  whole  of  social  activ- 
ity, will  come  last.  In  this  way  we  hope  to  bring  out  clearly 
the  social  character  of  education,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  it  is 
the  result  of  uniting  individual  efforts  and  activities. 

To  understand  the  terms  we  have  chosen  for  these  portions 
of  our  work,  the  reader  will  note  that  the  historical  section  is 
not  intended  to  give  a  history  of  education;  this  being  the  prov- 
ince of  another  science.  What  is  intended  is  to  describe  only 
the  typical  forms  of  education  as  they  have  appeared  at  differ- 
ent times.  Our  treatment  of  these  historical  types  will  furnish 
a  basis  for  the  subsequent  inquiries,  but  it  will  not  attempt  to 
be  exhaustive. 

That  portion  of  our  treatise  which  deals  with  the  purpose  of 
education  pays  due  attention  also  to  those  motives  that  do  not 
enter  directly  into  human  consciousness,  or  at  least  not  with 
sufficient  definiteness  to  be  called  ends.  We  shall  therefore 
treat  more  generally  of  the  motives  and  aims  of  education. 

The  following  part  can  be  described  more  adequately  as 
dealing  with  the  content  of  education  rather  than  with  its  sub- 
ject-matter. The  caption  we  have  chosen  more  clearly  indicates 
the  one  aim  that  holds  together  the  heterogeneous  matter  con- 
tained in  education,  and  connotes  careful  examination  of  all 
parts  to  discover  their  bearing  upon,  and  exact  relation  to," 
education.  Since  the  forms  and  agencies  (Vermin elungeri)  em- 
ployed in  acquiring  ah  education  frequently  overlap,  it  will  be 
best  to  combine  the  treatment  of  the  two  subjects.  But  we 
shall  have  to  separate  the  part  giving  a  complete  view  of  the 
system  of  education  from  the  part  that  assigns  to  the  work  of 


74  INTRODUCTION 

education  its  proper  place  in  the  whole  of  the  duties  of  human 
life.  The  wording  "education  in  its  relation  to  the  sum  total 
of  life's  duties"  expresses  both  the  ethical  and  the  sociological 
side  of  the  matter. 

We  have  outlined  the  path  we  intend  to  pursue,  and  the  aim 
we  mean  to  reach,  but  we  have  done  so  with  a  mind  more  to 
the  problems  suggested  by  the  subject  itself  than  to  the  actual 
means  at  our  disposal  for  solving  them.  Were  we  to  consider 
merely  the  latter,  we  should  certainly  not  be  inclined  to  at- 
tempt more  than  to  follow  the  beaten  paths.  But  the  problems 
which  our  subject  raises  must  not  be  minimized,  even  though 
they  transcend  our  knowledge  and  ability.  The  present  work, 
which  was  inspired  by  just  such  a  problem,  may  not  furnish  a 
satisfactory  solution,  but  the  author  will  be  content  if  he  has  at 
least  stated  its  terms  more  clearly  and  encouraged  others  to 
supply  what  is  still  missing  in  order  that  the  problem  may  be 
solved. 


9      i 

e>    t         a1 


PART  I. 


THE  HISTORICAL  TYPES  OE  EDUCATION 


L 

EDUCATION  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  CULTURE, 
CIVILIZATION,  AND  MORAL  REFINEMENT. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Civilization— Culture ;  Moral  Refinement — Education. 

i.  The  terms  civilization  and  culture  are  used  to  denote  all 
those  institutions,  activities,  and  objects  that  humanize  life  and 
ennoble  and  elevate  existence,  or,  as  the  ancients  put  it,  raise 
the  tfiv  to  ev  tfiv,  KaXox;  tfiv  The  term  civilization  is,  in  accord- 
ance with  its  etymology,  generally  understood  to  embrace  the 
institutions  and  forms  of  life  that  make  man  a  member  of  a 
community,  and  consequently  comprises  all  the  forces  making 
for  a  social  and  common  life  in  opposition  to  the  egotistic  in- 
stincts of  the  solitary  savage.  The  term  culture  has  also  re- 
tained some  part  of  its  primary  meaning,  for  it  signifies  the 
cultivation  of  those  fields  of  labor  that  present  themselves  to 
the  human  mind  after  it  has  emerged  from  the  indolence  of  the 
primitive  stage  and  reward  the  labor  bestowed  upon  them  by 
objects  that  lend  dignity  and  happiness  to  life. 

Civilization  is  based  on  religious  and  civil  laws,  on  manners, 
customs,  and  the  social  order;  culture,  on  faith,  knowledge, 
ability,  labor,  and  social  intercourse,  artistic  and  creative  activ- 
ities of  all  kinds.  Civilization  comprises  the  foundations  of  life, 
which  the  ancients  regarded  as  blessings  accruing  from  what 
such  kindly  deities  as  Osiris  and  Isis,  Dionysos  and  Demeter, 
had  taught  the  children  of  men;  culture  comprises  the  gifts 
committed  to  man  when,  according  to  Greek  mythology,  Pro- 
metheus breathed  life  into  the  sluggish  and  brooding  race  of 
men,  not  without  warning  them  against  restless  and  immoderate 
striving.1 

1  Arist.,  Pol.  I,  2,  III,  9.     Diod.,  XII,  13,  and  elsewhere. 

77 


78  EDUCATION  IN  ITS    RELATION  TO  CULTURE. 

Civilization  humanizes  by  joining  together;  culture,  by  viv- 
•  ifying.  The  strength  of  the  former  lies  in  the  solidity  of  its 
foundations  and  the  firmness  of  its  structure;  the  glory  of  cul- 
ture, in  its  breadth  and  depth.  We  are  wont  to  regard  civili- 
zation as  the  everywhere  recurring  foundation  of  humanity, 
untouched  by  differences  in  the  spirit  of  the  nations:  we  speak 
of  civilized  nations,  not  of  national  civilizations.  But  we  are  in 
the  habit  of  considering  culture  as  influenced  by,  and  dependent 
on,  the  creative  genius  of  each  nation,  and  we  even  name  it  after 
the  different  nations,  thus  referring  it  to  the  nation  as  such,  and 
this  despite  the  fact  that  humanity  always  plays  an  important 
rule  in  making  for  points  of  similarity  in  the  culture  of  even  the 
most  diverse  nations. 

2.  The  relation  between  civilization  and  culture  will  come 
out  still  more  clearly  if  we  contrast  the  kindred  terms:  moral 
refinement  and  education.  The  term  moral  refinement  stresses 
the  subjective  element  not  expressed  by  civilization,  denoting  a 
bent  of  mind  corresponding  to  the  dictates  of  civilization;  it 
expresses  the  internal  effects  of  civilization  in  the  individual, 
and  is  akin  in  this  regard  to  the  Greek  ^#05,  which  signifies, 
beside  the  objective  content,  the  subjective  state  of  the  soul. 
To  be  refined  is  to  be  more  than  merely  civilized;  it  expresses 
that  the  external  forms  of  civilization  have  been  received  by  the 
soul,  that  the  heart  and  mind  have  been  raised  above  the  stand- 
ard of  primitive  man.  We  may  speak  of  sham  civilization,  /.  e., 
civilization  that  is  purely  a  matter  of  external  forms,  but  we 
cannot  correctly  speak  of  counterfeit  refinement  or  of  purely 
external  forms  of  refinement,  since  refinement  presupposes  that 
the  soul,  or  the  inner  man,  has  become  truly  ennobled.  As  soon 
as  civilization  has  entered  into  the  flesh  and  bone  of  the  indi- 
vidual, he  has  refinement. 

Analogously,  there  is  a  subjective,  individual  element  implied 
in  education.  Education  certainly  signifies  something  more 
than  that  the  creative  forces  of  nature  have  been  called  into 
play,  for  when  we  speak  of  an  educated  person,  we  wish  to  say 
that  the  creative  forces  of  nature  have  been  active  in  his  mind 
and  soul  spontaneously  building  on  the  foundation  of  his  natural 
endowments.  Similarly,  when  we  speak  of  an  educated  nation, 
we  wish  to  say  that  the  nation  has  not  only  acquired  the  treas- 
ures of  education,  but  is  able  to  hold  and  to  impart  them  to 
individuals,  so  that  they  become  for  the  latter  the  sources  of 
such  mental  qualities  as  an  open  and  receptive  mind,  a  refined 
taste,  and  nobility  of  soul.  No  great  receptivity  is  needed  to 


INTERDEPENDENCE  OF  EDUCATION  AND  CULTURE.       79 

share  in  the  blessings  of  culture;  but  great  efforts  are  required 
to  obtain  a  real  education,  and  these  endeavors  must  be  con- 
tinuous if  the  education  is  to  be  permanent.  Before  a  man  can 
be  considered  to  be  truly  educated,  it  is  necessary  that  he  cor- 
rectly join  together  and  incorporate  in  his  personality  the  vari- 
ous elements  of  culture.  It  is  not  an  easy  task,  though  it  is 
essential  for  the  man  of  education  to  harmonize  into  one  whole 
the  parts  which  together  form  the  content  of  education  and  to 
express  this  in  all  the  activities  of  his  soul. 

3.  Education  is  not  co-extensive  with  the  whole  of  language, 
literature,  faith,  science,  religious  worship,  art,  technology,  eco- 
nomics, but  is  placed  beside  and  among  these  fields;  it  is  in 
touch  with  each  and  all,  but  is  not  co-extensive  with  any  single 
field,  but  transcends  beyond  all.  Its  content  is,  indeed,  related 
to  all  these  fields,  but  its  proper  function  is  not  to  reproduce 
any  of  them  in  their  entirety,  but  to  make  a  wise  and  prudent 
selection  of  their  choicest  elements.  The  work  of  cultural  edu- 
cation is  taken  up  with  general  and  basic  knowledge  and  arts 
(Fertigkeiteri})  which  have  about  the  same  relation  to  the  whole 
of  the  vast  field  of  culture  as  a  smaller  circle  to  a  larger  con- 
centric circle.  The  system  of  education  is  the  tangible  form  for 
the  whole  of  the  joint  efforts  and  agencies  devoted  to  the  ac- 
quiring and  imparting  of  a  general  education.  But  the  work 
of  culture  can  not,  by  reason  of  its  universality  and  all  the 
branches  spreading  out  from  its  boundaries,  be  comprised  in 
any  similar  single  institution;  but  the  nation,  or  rather  the 
social  organism,  embracing  all  professions  and  all  classes  of 
society,  must  be  said  to  be  the  representative  of  a  certain  culture. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Interdependence  of  Education  and  Culture. 

i.  Among  the  four  socio-psyc'hological  concepts  that  we  con- 
sidered, the  concept  of  education  shows  the  smallest  compass, 
and  hence  we  may  expect  that  it  will  also  be  the  most  condi- 
tioned; and,  in  point  of  fact,  there  are  presuppositions  (Voraus- 
setzungen)  in  culture,  as  well  as  in  civilization  and  refinement, 
which  produce,  according  to  their  modification,  various  types  of 
education. 


8O  EDUCATION  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  CULTURE. 

The  culture  of  a  nation  is  an  important  factor  in  shaping  its 
education.  Nations  possessing  an  indigenous  culture  have  the 
sources  and  monuments  of  their  education  on  their  own  soil 
and  in  their  own  past;  the  content  of  education  transmitted  to 
the  descendants  is  the  property  of  the  nation;  the  language  in 
which  it  is  couched  may  have  a  strange  and  unfamiliar  sound, 
but  it  is  the  language  of  the  forefathers  and  will,  upon  closer 
inspection,  reveal  its  kinship  to  the  living  language  of  the  day. 
But  a  nation  with  a  foreign  and  borrowed  culture  is  forced  to 
look  in  foreign  lands  for  the  sources  of  its  education,  and  must 
master  one,  or  perhaps  several  foreign  languages  before  the  path 
leading  to  these  sources  will  be  clear,  and  consequently  educa- 
tion is  the  exclusive  privilege  of  certain  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation. The  education  of  such  a  nation  is  like  an  exotic  plant, 
whose  care  requires  much  labor  and  which,  moreover,  remains 
restricted  to  a  very  limited  territory.  Yet  this  very  disadvan- 
tage may  be  productive  of  good  results  in  stimulating  men  to 
such  redoubled  activities  as  may  succeed,  finally,  in  assimilating 
fully  all  the  foreign  elements  and  in  creating  out  of  the  union 
of  native  and  foreign  materials  a  second  education  that  is  truly 
national  in  spirit.  In  this  process  the  two  opposed  factors  may 
produce  happier  results  than  are  possible  to  a  nation  whose 
educational  system  received  no  foreign  influences,  and  which, 
by  being  limited  to  the  continuous  reproduction  of  the  same 
content,  may  easily  degenerate  into  a  dead  and  soulless  thing — 
a  fossil. 

2.  While  the  starting-point  of  a  nation's  culture  is  thus  an 
important  factor  m  developing  a  specific  character  in  education, 
an  influence  equally  strong  is  exerted  in  the  same  regard  by  the 
direction  of  the  nation's  cultural  activities.  If  the  religious 
element  is  the  chief  influence  in  the  national  life,  the  foundation 
of  the  national  education  will  also  be  religious  in  character. 
The  principal  purpose  of  all  schooling  will  be  the  preservation 
of  the  sacred  traditions;  the  intellectual  interests  will  be  com- 
mitted to  the  priests,  and  their  education  will  mark  the  highest 
stage  of  artistic  and  scientific  achievement,  and  even  if  a  pop- 
ular education  should  develop  and  exist  side  by  side  with  the 
education  of  the  clergy,  the  latter  will  remain  the  model  in 
content  as  well  as  in  form.  The  system  of  education  will  pre- 
sent hard  and  fast  distinctions  in  forms  and  grades,  and  these 
distinctions  will  be  jealously  guarded  against  any  and  all  in- 
novations; teaching  will  be  considered  more  as  an  imparting  of 
positive  knowledge  than  as  an  awakening  of  the  pupil's  mental 


INTERDEPENDENCE  OF    EDUCATION    AND  CULTURE.  8l 

powers;  but  the  relations  between  teacher  and  pupil  will  bear 
so  sacred  and  reverential  a  character  that  the  knowledge  im- 
parted will  prove  a  strong  moral  force. 

The  opposite  of  this  type  of  education  is  developed  by  a 
culture  with  a  predominantly  aesthetical  tendency.  Here  the 
poet  has  charge  of  the  subject-matter  of  teaching,  which  is  held 
in  high  esteem  not  merely  for  its  content  but  also  for  its  perfect 
form;  here  the  artist  and  the  master  of  language  are  ever  dis- 
covering and  making  accessible  new  sources  of  education.  The 
manpf  education  is  he  who  can  not  only  enjoy  the  works  of  art, 
but  also  interpret  their  message  and  meaning.  This  latter  abil- 
ity raises  him  above  the  masses,  who  can  only  look  on,  or  listen 
to,  the  creations  of  genius.  Whosoever  has  a  message  of  general 
interest  is  considered  a  teacher;  circles  of  pupils  gather  about 
him,  and  a  school  is  established.  Education  is  prized  not  for 
its  content  (sacred  in  having  been  handed  down  from  the  for- 
bears), but  for  its  inherent  grace  and  charm;  it  is  looked  upon  as 
the  means  for  perfecting  and  rounding  off  the  personality  oif  man. 

Again,  the  educational  system  of  a  nation  will  be  more  fixed 
and  stable  in  form,  if  the  national  life  is  deeply  influenced  by  an 
abiding  interest  in  science  and  research.  Such  a  naticn  will 
distinguish  very  carefully  between  scientific  and  purely  cultural 
studies,  and  between  the  work  of  scientific  research  and  the 
elementary  or  propaedeutic  study  of  the  sciences.  There  will  be 
a  twofold  conception  of  the  school:  one  as  comprising  the  schol- 
ars engaged  in  scientific  research,  and  the  other  as  representing 
the  institution  where  knowledge  is  imparted  to  the  young.  In 
as  much  as  the  school  in  the  latter  conception  must  prepare  for 
higher  studies,  it  may  be  called  a  school  of  science  and  may 
become  the  fixed  centre  of  the  educational  system.  The  general 
education  of  the  masses  will  pursue  a  different  course  than  the 
education  of  the  scholar,  but  the  findings  of  scholars  are  a  deep 
influence  in  popular  education.  The  popular  essay,  the  encyclo- 
pedia, polite  literature,  the  newspaper,  the  magazine — all  join  in 
popularizing  the  discoveries  made  by  scholars;  and  though  this 
popularizing  activity  does  not  always  promote  scientific  pro- 
gress, yet  the  process  itself  is  due  to  the  expansive  force  of  sci- 
ence, which  will  out,  "like  the  water  which,  once  it  is  set  free 
from  its  source,  will  continue  to  flow  on  its  endless  course;  and 
like  the  flame  which,  when  once  enkindled,  will  emit  both  light 
and  heat."1 


1  J.  Grimm,   Ueber  Schule,   Universitdt,  Akademie. 


82  EDUCATION  IN   ITS  RELATION  TO  CULTURE. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  idealism,  which  is  characteristic  of 
the  education  fostered  by  the  devotion  to  the  arts  or  to  sci- 
entific research,  will  wane  if  a  nation  permits  its  national  life  to 
be  absorbed  in  economic  and  utilitarian  interests.  These  inter- 
ests will  establish  the  bread-and-butter  standard  for  evaluating 
the  work  of  the  school;  they  will  make  the  practical  efficiency 
of  the  pupils  rather  than  the  development  of  their  intellectual 
and  moral  faculties  the  end  of  education.  These  losses,  how- 
ever, are  counterbalanced  by  positive  gains  in  other  directions. 
There  is  in  this  education,  aiming,  as  it  does,  at  practical  effi- 
ciency and  practical  results,  less  danger  of  resting  satisfied  with 
selfish  enjoyment  or  idle  speculation,  which  is  too  frequently 
the  fruit  of  the  purely  aesthetical  tendency  in  education:  by 
attaching  special  importance  to  work,  the  moral  value  of  the 
latter  will  be  enhanc  d,  and  this  will  in  turn  assist  in  improving 
the  living  conditions  of  the  workers  of  all  classes.  Technical 
and  practical  training  as  well  as  the  education  of  the  masses  will 
be  assured  a  place  in  the  national  system  of  education.  The 
technical  sciences  will  multiply  and  improve  the  vehicles  for 
human  intercourse,  and  some  of  these  improvements,  though 
they  be  only  technical,  may,  as  is  seen  in  the  history  of  the  art 
of  printing,  turn  education  into  an  entirely  new  channel:  the 
education  of  the  nations  who  have  adopted  the  printed  book  is, 
in  some  respects,  of  a  higher  type  than  that  of  the  nations  who 
are  confined  to  script. 

3.  In  establishing  the  community  of  life,  which  is  the  neces- 
sary condition  for  a  system  of  education,  civilization  is  a  more 
remote,  but  not  a  less  important,  factor  than  culture.  Man 
must  first  settle  down  to  fixed  habits  of  life,  his  relations  with 
his  fellowmen  must  be  firmly  established  and  well-regulated,  ere 
a  mutual  influence  of  the  more  delicate  psychical  effects  can  be 
exerted.  The  forces  of  civilization  are  thus  the  foundations  of 
education  and,  though  they  do  not  create  the  latter,  their  in- 
fluence in  this  regard  is  powerful  and  manifold.  Laws  and 
customs  determine  when  the  individual  is  of  age,  and  this  fact 
is  of  great  importance  in  education,  as  it  is  in  great  part  re- 
sponsible for  the  grading  and  the  completion  of  the  individual's 
period  of  school  life.  Laws  and  customs  also  regulate  the  re- 
lations between  the  various  social  classes,  and  thus  determine 
whether  the  national  education  belongs  to  one  or  more  classes. 
The  prevailing  views  on  what  is  just  and  right  will  decide  wheth- 
er and  how  far  women  are  to  share  in  the  intellectual  gifts,  and 
thereby  modify  not  a  little  the  work  of  cultural  education.  The 


INTERDEPENDENCE  OF  EDUCATION  ANt)  CULTURE.  83 

system  of  education  depends  most  upon  the  power  of  the  State 
when  it  has  grown  to  such  dimensions  as  to  necessitate  its  legal 
organization.  The  nature  and  spirit  of  the  constitution  of  the 
State,  its  relations  to.  the  other  social  organisms — the  family, 
society,  the  Church,  the  people  at  large — will  then  shape,  in 
great  measure,  the  legal  form  of  the  system  of  education;  and 
this  legal  form  will  eventually  prove  a  powerful  factor  in  deter- 
mining even  the  most  minute  details  of  school  work.  But  even 
before  this  direct  influence  of  the  State  is  felt,  there  is  a  con- 
tinuous influence  proceeding  from  the  public  life  of  the  nation. 
A  great  world  power  exerts  an  entirely  different  influence  than 

'the  government  of  a  petty  prince;  a  monarchy  exerts  a  different 
influence  than  a  republic;  and  a  nation  conservative  in  spirit 
and  another  given  to  perpetual  changing  will  again  exert  differ- 
ent influences.  One  government  favors  more  a  solid  and  stable 
form  of  education,  while  the  other  encourages  the  moveable  and 
individual  type  of  school;  and  this  respective  policy  is  followed 
even  without  the  direct  intervention  of  the  State,  solely  as  a 

"result  of  the  spontaneous  tendencies  of  human  activity. 

4.  If  customs  and  laws  are  the  chief  factors  in  modifying  the 
forms  and  institutions  of  education,  refinement  is  responsible  for 
the  endeavor  to  make  all  the  educational  work  one  harmonious 
whole.  The  ideals  of  education,  be  they  ever  so  varied  in  form, 
can  always  be  traced  to  moral  views  and  principles,  which  are 
formulated  when  a  nation  becomes  conscious  of  its  refinement. 
Among  the  motives  encouraging  us  to  strive  for  an  education  is 
the  sincere  persuasion  that  it  is  proper  for  a  man  to  receive 
some  intellectual  content,  to  make  it  part  of  his  nature,  and 
thus  to  become  a  member  of  a  select  circle.  Even  the  crudest 
reasoning  must  discover  the  relation  existing  between  education 
and  refinement.  The  ideal  of  the  wise  man  preceded  the  ideal 
of  the  man  of  education.  Long  before  the  idea  of  a  common 
intellectual  property,  refining  in  influence,  had  been  conceived, 
men  had  looked  up  with  veneration  to  the  wise  man,  who  was 
by  the  bounty  of  the  gods  in  full  possession  of  the  highest  of 
intellectual  gifts,  and  whose  life  was  a  model  and  an  inspiration 
to  all.  Aristotle  enumerates  the  following  traits  noted  univer- 
sally in  the  wise  man:  his  knowledge  covers  all  fields,  though  he 
is  wise  enough  not  to  attach  to6  much  importance  to  the  details 
and  the  individual;  he  finds  no  difficulty  in  solving  problems 
that  are  difficult  to  others;  he  knows  the  causes  of  all  things; 
he  possesses  a  rare  skill  in  instructing  and  directing  his  fellow- 


84  EDUCATION    IN   ITS   RELATION  TO  CULTURE. 

men.1  All  these  features  are  common  to  our  ideal  of  the  edu- 
cated man:  his  education,  too,  should  be  universal  and  thor- 
ough; he  should  be  endowed  with  the  power  of  expression;  and 
should  make  practical  use  of  his  knowledge  and  educational 
attainments.  The  man  of  education  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  an 
epigonus  of  the  wise  man  of  antiquity;  he  is  the  incarnation  of 
the  idealized  vision  of  the  ancients.  He  is  the  incarnation, 
moreover,  of  the  ancient  ideal  on  a  large  and  ever  increasing 
scale;  what  had  been  the  prerogative  of  a  few  select  and  highly 
gifted  mortals,  has  come  to  be  the  common  property  of  the 
multitude;  the  intellectual  life  has  come  down  from  the  highest 
heights  into  the  valleys  of  the  plain  and  homely  folk. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Education  and  the  Stages  of  Culture. 

i.  Order  and  a  worthy  content  of  life  appear,  therefore,  as" 
the  basis  of  that  refinement  and  assimilation  of  men,  upon 
which  education  is  founded,  and  hence  a  nation  that  lacks  in 
its  national  life  these  elements,  cannot  be  said  to  possess  edu- 
cation. Primitive  peoples,  whose  life  is  destitute  of  system  and 
law  and  order  and  regular  activity,  have  no  education.  Still 
we  would  not  deny  that  every  stage  of  development  of  a  race, 
no  matter  how  primitive,  is  in  possession  of  some  ideas,  of  some 
knowledge,  of  some  arts,  and  that  a  certain  mental  growth  may 
be  observed  in  the  individual's  mastery  of  these  elements.  The 
very  language  is  the  vehicle  of  much  thought,  a  valuable  asset; 
and  the  languages  of  "nature  peoples"  (Naturvolker)y  even  if 
primitive,  are  often  strangely  ingenious  in  structure,  and  dis- 
close in  their  vocabulary  a  surprising  wealth  of  ideas  gained 
from  communing  with  nature.  The  traditions  of  the  Golden 
Age.  of  the  destruction  and  restoration  of  the  human  race,  of 
the  Deluge,  which  we  find  among  almost  all  peoples,  and  which 
extend  back  into  time  immemorial,  are  only  a  fraction  of  the 
intellectual  treasures  of  primitive  peoples,  which  can  not  but 
exert  an  elevating  influence  upon  these  children  of  nature. 
Their  feelings,  both  of  sadness  and  joy,  they  express  in  songs 
and  music;  wise  and  witty  sayings,  the  proverbs  and  adages, 
which  they  transmit  to  the  succeeding  generations,  are  the 

i  Aristotle,  Met.,  I,  2. 


EDUCATION  AND   THE    STAGES   OF  CULTURE.  85 

vehicles  of  much  homely  wisdom.  They  cultivate  the  arts  of 
dancing  and  of  military  drills,  not  merely  because  they  are 
pleasant  or  useful,  but  because  they  develop  physical  charms 
and  graces.  Nations  destined  to  become  truly  cultured  show 
even  in  the  first  stages  of  their  development  the  characteristic 
features  of  their  later  education.  The  heroes  of  Homer  can  not 
be  expected  to  bring  out  in  full  the  -culture  that  was  the  glory 
of  a  later  Greece,  and  that  actually  grew  out  of  Homer's  poetry; 
but  what  Phoinix,  the  teacher  of  Achilles,  describes  as  the  end 
of  his  training,  "to  shine  in  councils,  and  in  camps  to  dare," 
is  not  essentially  different  from  the  educational  ideal  of  a  later 
age.  Similarly,  the  education  given  by  the  Aesir  Heimdall  to 
Jarl,  as  described  in  the  Lay  of  Rig,,  in  the  Elder  Edda,1  is  an 
unmistakable  counterpart  of  the  chivalric  education  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  But  this  is,  nevertheless,  not  ground  enough  to 
allow  even  to  the  more  developed  of  the  primitive  races  a  type 
of  education.  The  possession  of  education  may  be  denied  to 
them  for  various  reasons:  their  teaching  lacks  a  substantial  and 
articulated  content;  the  matter  of  their  knowledge  and  arts  is 
not  co-ordinated;  their  acquiring  of  an  intellectual  content 
wants  form  and  order;  and  they  make  no  attempt  to  systema- 
tize their  pursuit  of  knowledge.  But  to  the  student  of  edu- 
cation this  incipient  development  of  an  educational  type  should 
prove  of  particular  interest:  as  the  educational  life  of  the  nation 
is  not  yet  fixed,  one  can  observe  its  elements,  as  it  were,  in  a 
fluid  state  before  they  are  partly  chrystallized — a  necessary 
condition  for  the  creation  of  an  educational  type;  the  forces, 
too,  that  will  continue  to  operate  in  a  higher  stage  of  culture 
are  already  at  work  and  are  noted  more  readily  in  the  primitive 
than  in  the  advanced  stage — viz.,  the  spontaneous  assimilation 
of  the  young,  the  spontaneous  teaching  and  learning,  and  the 
very  fruitful,  even  if  crude  and  informal,  daily  intercourse. 

2.  It  is  not  an  easy  task  to  determine  the  exact  point  when 
a  "nature  people"  may  be  said  to  have  advanced  so  far  in  civi- 
lization, culture,  and  refinement  as  to  deserve  to  be  termed  an 
educated  people;  but  it  may  be  safely  stated  that  this  stage  is 
reached  when  the  art  of  writing  has  come  into  general  use.  The 
art  of  writitag  holds  fast,  like  a  fixative,  the  intellectual  content 
of  a  nation's  life;  to  religious  ideas  it  gives  a  permanent  form 
in  the  sacred  books;  it  collects'  all  the  knowledge  transmitted 

1  Iliad,  IX,  445. 

2  The  Elder  Eddas,  Transl.  by  B.  Thorpe,  Norroena  Society,  New  York,  1906, 

81  ff. 


86  EDUCATION  IN    ITS    RELATION  TO   CULTURE. 

from  the  past,  and  this  knowledge,  now  stated  with  precision, 
is  the  basis  of  scientific  research;  it  selects  from  the  legends  and 
poems  handed  down,  by  word  of  mouth,  the  nation's  standard 
poetry.  When  written,  the  reminiscences  and  memories  of  the 
olden  days  are  history;  and  the  customs  and  manners,  when 
expressed  in  writing,  assume  the  force  of  laws.  Of  the  content 
of  a  nation's  knowledge  only  that  which  has  been  reduced  to 
writing  can  be  made  the  subject  of  real  teaching,  and  the  art 
that  is  the  instrument  for  formulating  it,  is  the  subject  of  sys- 
tematic practice.  Reading  and  writing  are  the  first  subjects  of 
real  teaching  and  learning;  and  as  the  alphabet  to-day  still 
holds  the  first  place  in  the  schooling  of  our  children,  so  it  also 
marks  the  entrance  of  education  into  the  life  of  a  nation.  The 
beginnings  of  schools  can  be  traced  back  to  the  time  when  the 
art  of  writing  was  made  the  subject  of  systematic  study  and 
practice.  We  find,  indeed,  that  nations  who  lacked  the  art  of 
writing  would  assemble  the  children  together  for  the  purpose  of 
discipline  and  physical  culture,  but  never  for  the  purpose  of 
common  study.  Though  we  may  deny  that  Comenius'  defini- 
tion of  the  school  as  the  "  officina  transfundendce  eruditionis  e 
libris  in  homines"1  is  "perfectly  satisfactory,  yet  the  school  and 
the  book  are,  in  matter  of  fact,  mutual  complements,  and  have 
been  mutually  related  long  before  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a 
textbook.  But  the  book  is  not  only  the  basis  of  instruction, 
but  also  its  supplement;  "to  write  is  but  to  speak  to  the  eyes, 
and  to  read  is  but  a  hearing  with  the  eyes."  The  written  word 
is  heard  longer  and  farther  than  the  spoken  word;  it  travels 
abroad,  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  whole  country; 
and  long  before  the  demand  of  the  reading  public  had  created 
the  supply  of  a  large  and  extensive  literature,  the  inscription, 
the  page,  and  the  book  had  become  the  vehicles  of  general 
knowledge,  and  some  of  the  most  powerful  means  for  equalizing 
the  knowledge  and  ability  of  men. 

The  stage  of  development  reached  by  a  nation  when  it  "is 
first  introduced  to  the  art  of  writing,  or  the  matter  which  is 
first  committed  to  writing,  may  determine  the  future  character 
of  the  national  education.  The  ease  or  difficulty  with  which 
the  written  language  may  be  learned,  or  even  the  technical 
matters  to  be  considered  in  writing,  especially  the  cheap  or 
expensive  writing  materials — all  will  influence,  favorably  or 

1  Opp.  Did.  O.,  II,  p.  527. 

2  H.  Wuttke,  Geschichte  der  Schrift  und  des  Schrifttums,  Leipzig,  1872,  p.  n. 


EDUCATION  AND   THE  STAGES   OF   CULTURE.  87 

otherwise,  the  progress  of  national  education.  If  the  first  book 
be  a  collection  of  hymns,  the  effects  will  be  other  than  if  the 
first  matter  written  down  were  historical  facts,  or  laws,  or  man- 
ners and  customs.  The  art  of  writing  will  likewise  fare  differ- 
ently, both  in  the  schoolroom  and  out,  if  the  national. language 
recognizes  but  one  system  of  writing  instead  of  permitting  two — 
the  sacred  and  the  profane — to  co-exist  with  one  another.  Nor 
can  we  expect  the  same  educational  results  in  the  nation  that 
has  a  system  of  writing  which  is  so  difficult,  that  its  mastery 
requires  the  work  of  the  entire  period  of  a  child's  schooling,  as 
in  another  nation  whose  written  language  is  so  easy  as  to  be 
mastered  by  a  lad  of  seven.  Again,  there  will  be  different  re- 
sults, if  the  leaves  of  trees  or  bast,  or  slate  and  paper,  are  used 
for  writing  materials  instead  of  such  materials  as  are  too  costly 
for  extensive  use. 

3.  While  nations,  then,  that  possess  no  written  language 
have  likewise  no  education,  there  is  a  further  point  to  be  settled 
whether  all  nations  that  practise  the  art  of  writing  possess  an 
education,  or  whether  there  be  any  additional  requisites. 

When  we  consider  how  far  superior  education  is  to  culture 
(Kultur),  we  shall  realize  that  education  is  so  choice  a  flower  of 
humanity  that  it  can  be  expected  even  from  a  civilized  nation 
only  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances.  It  may  well 
seem  that  a  special  creative  force  is  needed,  over  and  above  the 
forces  inherent  in  culture,  to  join  certain  elements  of  the  latter 
into  a  harmonious  union,  and  to  make  them  so  much  a  property 
of  the  individual  person  that  they  shall  prove  in  his  life  an 
element  of  intellectual  fructification  and  of  aesthetic  and  moral 
enlightenment;  and  that  for  this  purpose  the  function  of  culture 
must  first  be  set  free,  in  order  to  fit  it  for  exercising  so  free  and 
unhampered  an  influence  on  the  inner  life.  There  are  some 
nations,  who  have  attained  a  high  degree  of  civilization,  but 
who  have  evolved  the  idea  of  an  individual  personality  so  slight- 
ly, that  there  can  be  no  thought  with  them  of  centering  the 
work  of  culture  in  the  development  of  the  individual.  Shall 
these  nations  then  be  denied  the  claim  to  education,  or  may  it 
be  assumed  that  the  absence  of  these  factors  would  but  indicate 
that  the  idea  of  education  is,  like  every  other  idea,  subject  to  a 
long  period  of  successive  development,  before  it  can  be  con- 
sidered a  historical  reality? 

The  answer  will  decide  whether  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
East  may  be  called  educated  or  no.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  these  nations  were  highly  civilized,  but  the  rigidity  and 


88  EDUCATION  IN    ITS   RELATION   TO    CULTURE. 

fixedness  of  their  institutions,  and  the  hard  and  fast  lines  bind- 
ing the  individual  to  the  whole  and  the  past,  seem  to  render 
educational  efforts — which  must  be  free,  if  anything — impos- 
sible. These  nations  looked  upon  the  regulation  of  life  and  the 
consequent  perfection  of  it  as  lying  beyond  the  individual, 
though  they  regarded  it  as  a  sacred  duty  of  the  individual  to 
co-operate  in  attaining  this  end.  The  chief  duty  of  the  indi- 
vidual was  to  fill  his  place  in  the  whole  of  the  social  organism 
and  to  conserve  and  guard  scrupulously  all  that  was  entrusted 
to  him  of  the  highest  gifts  of  civilization.  The  ancient  civili- 
zation of  the  East  recognized  no  distinction  between  right  doing 
(Rechtturi)  and  correct  acting  (korrekt  handeln)\  to  know  some- 
thing was  the  same  as  to  have  learned  it  by  heart;  to  be  master 
in  any  field  meant  no  more  than  to  be  able  to  do  what  the  for- 
bears had  been  doing  centuries  before.  Though  we  can  not 
concede  that  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  Eastern  nations  was 
mere  "barbarism  ruled  by  priestcraft  and  the  darkest  of  super- 
stition," yet,  in  point  of  fact,  the  social  constitution  of  these 
nations  and  their  servile  worship  of  traditions  allowed  scant 
opportunity  for  the  homogeneous  development  of  the  intellect 
and  for  the  free  use  of  the  products  of  culture  for  the  purposes 
of  education. 

However,  this  is  not  sufficient  ground  on  which  to  deny  the 
existence  of  a  certain  type  of  Oriental  education.  To  do  so 
would  be  unfair  to  all  that  has  been  achieved  by  the  Eastern 
nations  in  the  field  of  the  higher  life  of  the  mind.  The  preju- 
dices of  a  former  day,  which  refused  to  recognize  any  education 
in  the  East,  should  long  ago  have  died  a  natural  death  in  the 
face  of  facts  unearthed  by  modern  scholarship.  Modern  re- 
search has  thrown  new  light  on  Eastern  conditions,  and  has 
disillusioned  the  world  of  the  notion  of  the  oriental  priests,  who, 
jealous  of  their  secrets,  would  withhold  from  the  masses  the  pur- 
suit of  knowledge.  The  ancient  Greeks  inform  us,  that  popular 
education  had  in  the  early  days  of  Egyptian  history  branched 
off  from  the  education  that  was  held  sacred,  as  being  the  ex- 
clusive privilege  of  the  priest;  Plato  does  not  hesitate  to  re- 
commend this  popular  education  to  his  countrymen,  as  possess- 
ing many  features  worthy  of  imitation.1  It  is  now  a  well  known 
fact  that  the  knowledge  of  the  Vedas  was  not  looked  upon  as 
the  monopoly  of  the  Brahmans,  but  that  the  religious  instruc- 
tion was  open  alike  to  the  warrior  and  the  merchant.  The 


1   Plato,  Legg.,  VII,  p.  819. 


EDUCATION  AND   THE  STAGES    OF   CULTURE.  89 

educational  system  of  India,  though  one  of  many  ramifications, 
resembles  more  closely,  in  form  and  structure,  the  organization 
of  the  family  than  of  the  school;  but  the  school  system  of  ancient 
Egypt  was  well  organized  and  well  graded.  Indian  literature  is 
not  devoted  to  science  exclusively,  for  a  large  portion  of  it  is 
pure  letters,  serving  not  for  any  purpose  of  study,  but  for  ele- 
gant leisure.  Upon  a  deeper  study  of  oriental  education  we 
shall  realize  that  it  does  not  lack  altogether  the  idea  of  indi- 
vidual education.  The  Hindu  makes  a  due  distinction  between 
the  man  of  learning  and  the  man  of  education;  he  has  a  happy 
term  for  designating  the  latter,  taking,  as  the  Germans  do  for 
Bildung,  his  conception  from  the  idea  of  forming  man  like  a 
vessel;  though  his  word  for  the  man  of  education,  vidagdha,  is 
superior  to  the  German  der  Gebildete^  because  the  Indian 
term  expresses  that  the  ware  has  been  well  baked  in  the  fire. 
Durvidagdha  is  the  Sanskrit  for  the  half-baked  one,  the  man  of 
superficial  education;  viceschadschna  is  the  man  of  universal 
learning,  and  adschna  is  the  ignoramus.1 

If  noble  self-respect  proves  that  the  content  of  education  has 
become  the  property  of  the  soul,  then  we  must  allow  that  the 
Egyptians  also  assimilated  their  knowledge,  for  Plato  has  the 
Egyptian  priest  make  the  proud  avowal:  "Ye  Greeks  are  but 
children,  and  a  Gireek  shall  never  attain  the  wisdom  of  old  age; 
ye  all  have  the  minds  and  souls  of  children,  for  ye  lack  the 
knowledge  of  the  olden  days,  and  have  no  wisdom  come  down 
from  the  early  ages."  '  Does  this  sentence  not  give  expression  to 
the  proud  consciousness  of  possessing  a  complete  personality, 
and  does  it  not  voice  perfectly  the  ethos  of  Oriental  traditions? 
It  were  certainly  a  serious  defect  in  what  purports  to  be  a  his- 
tory of  educational  types  to  have  it  begin  with  the  nation  of 
children  and  ignore  the  idea  of  education — however  imperfect, 
yet  venerable  and  deep  in  meaning — as  formulated  by  those 
nations  of  the  East,  that  have  been,  in  a  measure,  the  teachers 
of  the  Greeks,  and,  therefore,  of  all  Western  nations. 


1  "Lightly  an  ignorant  boor  is  made  content, 

And  lightlier  yet  a  sage, 

But  minds  by  half-way  knowledge  warped  and  bent, 

Not  Brahma's  self  their  fury  may  assuage."    —   P.  E.  Moore,  A  Century  of 
Indian  Epigrams,  Boston,  1898,  p.  52;  Bhartrihari,  I,  52,  87. 

2  Plato,  Tim.,  p.  22. 


II. 

ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
India. 

i.  Some  of  the  great  indigenous  civilizations  of  the  East 
date  from  prehistoric  times  and  flourished  for  thousands  of 
years.  However,  because  of  the  vast  differences  between  the 
East  and  the  West  and  between  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
world,  the  ancient  civilizations  of  the  East  might  well  appear 
strange  and  unintelligible  to  us.  But  the  culture  of  the  Indo- 
Aryans  seems  to  present  the  fewest  difficulties  to  the  modern 
mind.  And  it  is,  indeed,  not  so  very  difficult  for  us  to  under- 
stand the  plastic  forces  at  work  in  the  civilization  of  ancient 
India,  and  that  for  the  following  reasons.  There  is,  first  of  all, 
our  kinship  with  the  Indo-Aryan  race.  Next,  there  are  certain 
points  of  contact  between  our  culture  and  that  of  ancient  India, 
for  Western  culture,  on  the  one  hand,  owes  some  of  its  most 
valuable  elements  to  India,  while  the  latter,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  received  valuable  cultural  elements  from  the  West.  Finally, 
the  culture  of  the  Indo-Aryans  is  still  existing  and  thus  allows 
us  a  concrete  view  of  at  least  some  of  the  educational  forms 
produced  by  the  civilization  of  ancient  India. 

The  collective  designation  of  the  sacred  literature,  which  is 
the  foundation  of  Indian  education,  is  Veda^  i.  e.,  knowledge. 
At  the  base  of  this  entire  literature  of  more  than  one  hundred 
books  lie  four  varieties  of  metrical  compositions  known  as  the 
four  Vedas  in  the  narrower  sense.  The  Rig-Veda  contains  the 
invocations  addressed  to  the  gods  by  the  priest  of  Rik.  The 
Sama-Veda  contains  the  prayers  of  the  sacrificing  priest;  these 
prayers  are  but  repetitions  of  the  verses  of  the  Rig-Veda  in 
new  combinations.  The  Yajur-Veda  contains  the  blessings  pro- 
nounced by  the  Adhvarju.  The  Atharva-Veda  is  the  ritual  of  a 
special  order  of  priests,  who  practised  fire  worship,  but  who 
performed  no  definite  liturgical  function.  The  Samhita  of  each 
of  these  four  Vedas  is  a  purely  lyrical  collection,  to  which  were 
added  the  Brahmanas  and  Sutras^  i.  e.y  liturgical,  dogmatic,  and 

90 


INDIA.  QI 

didactic  explanations,  which  are  the  main  content  of  Vedic 
theology.1 

The  hymns  and  the  dogmatical  and  liturgical  parts  repre- 
sent, as  it  were,  the  inner  circles  of  the  Veda^  and  around  these 
all  Indian  literature  and  science  is  grouped.  The  demarcations 
between  the  Veda  proper  and  what  has  grown  up  around  it,  or 
directly  out  of  it,  are  so  shadowy  and  vague  as  to  make  a  clear- 
cut  distinction  impossible.2  How  the  Vedas  influenced  the  course 
of  studies  is  clearly  seen  in  the  various  systems  followed  in 
explaining  the  sacred  text.  There  was  one  system  of  Veda 
interpretation  which  treated  etymological,  mythical  (using  tales 
and  legends  to  illustrate  the  text),  and  liturgical  matters  and 
also  examined  into  the  inner  nature  and  interrelation  of  things.3 
Another  system  recognized  six  Vedanga^  i.  <?.,  six  branches  of 
Veda  interpretation  which  issued  organically  from  the  sacred 
text:  phonetics,  poetics,  grammar,  exegesis,  liturgy,  and  astron- 
omy— the  last-named  being  an  important  part  of  the  priests' 
learning,  because  they  had  to  set  the  date  for  the  sacrifices.4 
More  comprehensive  still  is  the  system  of  the  ten  sciences,  said 
to  have  been  established  "in  early  times  by  ten  priests  who  were 
familiar  with  the  contents  of.  the  Vedas^  and  who  made  this 
abstract  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the  subject  less  difficult  by 
teaching  the  several  branches  separately."  This  system  com- 
prises, besides  the  six  branches  mentioned  above,  the  following: 
laws,  legends,  logic,  and  dogmatic  theology.5  The  two  Upavedas, 
which  treat  of  music  and  medicine,  also  originated  in  the  study 
of  the  Vedas. 

2.  In  this  system  of  the  ten  sciences  grammar  occupies,  by 
virtue  of  its  age  and  its  inherent  dignity,  a  prominent  place. 
The  Brahmans  worshipped  language  as  a  deity;  they  offered 
sacrifices  and  sang  hymns  in  its  honor;  and  with  loving  care 
and  consummate  skill  they  analyzed  the  body  of  language.  It 
is  probable  that  the  knowledge  of  phonetics  antedates  the  com- 
pletion of  the  hymnological  sections  of  the  Rig-Veda.  "These 
(the  Ganas),"  to  quote  Max  Miiller,  "supplied  the  solid  basis 
on  which  successive  generations  of  scholars  erected  that  astound- 
ing structure  which  reached  its  perfection  in  the  grammar  of 

1  A.  Weber,  History  of  Indian  Literature,  Transl.  by  Mann  and  Zachariae, 
London,  1878,  pp.  8  ff. 

2  A.  Ludwig,  Der  Rigveda,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  15  ff. 

3  Ibid^  p.  75. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  74. 

5  Max  Miiller,  Rigveda-Pratisakhya,  Leipzig,  1869,  p.  VIII. 


92  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

Panini.  There  is  no  form,  regular  or  irregular,  in  the  whole 
Sanskrit  language,  which  is  not  provided  for  in  the  grammar  of 
Panini  and  his  commentators.  It  is  the  perfection  of  a  merely 
empirical  analysis  of  language,  unsurpassed,  nay  even  unap- 
proached,  by  anything  in  the  grammatical  literature  of  other 
nations."1  The  study  of  grammar  had  to  grow  the  more  in  im- 
portance the  more  the  language  of  daily  life  departed  from  the 
classical  language  of  literature  (Sanskrita)  and  the  more  difficult 
the  understanding  of  the  sacred  and  classical  texts  became. 
This  fact  accounts  for  the  exaggerated  praises  paid  to  grammar, 
which  is  described  as  the  art  that  leads  men  to  eternal  happi- 
ness, as  having  been  inspired  by  the  deity,  as  mastered  only  by 
asceticism,  etc.  Panini's  grammar,  being  obscure  because  of  its 
conciseness,  was  ill  adapted  for  the  purposes  of  instruction,  and 
hence  special  grammars  were  written  for  the  schools;  the  Sid- 
dhanta  Kaumudi  (The  Moonlight  of  the  Laws  of  Language), 
though  of  a  later  date,  was  used  widely,  and  the  abridged  edition 
of  this  same  work:  Laghusiddhanta  Kaumudi  (The  Small  Moon- 
light of  the  Laws  of  Language)  is  to-day  still  used  quite  generally.2 
The  Indian  art  of  language  dates,  like  the  Indian  grammar, 
from  the  study  of  the  Vedas.  The  great  Indian  epics  Mahab- 
harata  and  Ramajana  are  considered  as  sacred  as  the  Vedas  and 
are  occasionally  called  the  fifth  Veda!"  These  epics  contain 
historical  and  didactic  elements  intermixed;  the  former,  however, 
received  but  scant  attention  at  the  hands  of  Indian  scholars. 
India  has,  despite  its  reverence  for  the  past,  developed  no  inter- 
est in  history.  Either  the  tendency -for  phantastic  and  allegor- 
ical conceptions  prevented  this,  or  the  elegiac-mystical  view  that 
all  human  work  is  only  a  fleeting  show,  led  the  people  to  under- 


1  Max  Miiller,  The  Science  of  Language,  New  York,  1891,    I,  124,  125.  —  Pan- 
ini lived  in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.,  and  his  grammar,  consisting  of  eight  books 
containing  4,000  rules,  is  the  oldest  Sanskrit  grammar  which  has  been  preserved. 

2  It  is  written  in  Sanskrit,  and  the  Hindus  seem  thus  to  find  it  as  easy  to  learn 
an  unknown  tongue  through  the  medium  of  another  unknown  language,  ignotum 
per  ignotum,  as  did  our  own  ancestors  in  the  Middle  Ages,  who  learned  Latin  from 
grammars  written  in  Latin,     Its  1,000  sutras,  or  rules,  treat  of  sounds  and  letters 
(their  various  classes  are   memorized  by  ingenious  abbreviations),  euphony,  de- 
clension (in  a  poor  arrangement),  conjugation,  and  word-building.     The  unabridged 
Moonlight  is  taken  up  after  the  Small  Moonlight,  to  be  followed  by  the  dictionary 
of  roots  (Dhatupatha) ,  and  the  versified  list  of  synonyms  (Amara-koscha,  The  Im- 
mortal Treasure}.     The  reading  of  poets  is  taken  up  only  after  all  this  ground  has 
been  covered.     Cf.   Ballantyne,    The  Pandits  and   Their  Manner  of  Teaching,  in 
The  Pandit,  1867,  No.  10,  and  1868,  Nos.  21  and  23. 

Ludwig,  1.  c.,  p.  16. 


INDIA.  93 

rate  the  value  of  historical  records.  But  didactic  poetry,  espec- 
ially the  fable,  flourished  all  the  more.  Even  before  the  Mace- 
donian invasion,  fables  were  much  in  vogue  in  India  and,  even 
before  they  had  been  brought  together  in  the  collections  with 
which  we  are  familiar,  the  peoples  of  Western  Asia  were  drawing 
upon  the  stock  of  Indian  tales;  and  it  is  to  Western  Asia  that 
we  owe  the  Indian  beast  fable  common  to  all  modern  literatures.1 
The  wise  saying  enjoyed  equal  popularity  with  the  didactic  tale, 
though  it  was  never  introduced  in  the  schools.  Songs,  however, 
were  cultivated  but  little,  and  music,  too— though  it  was  used 
at  the  religious  services  and  represented  in  the  national  mythol- 
ogy by  the  Gandharvas,  and  though  its  theory  was  made  the 
subject  of  special  studies" — never  became  a  vital  or  educational 
element.  The  same  must  be  said  of  the  drama,  whose  begin- 
nings, closely  related  to  the  forms  of  religious  worship,  may  be 
seen  in  the  national  life,  but  whose  full  development  is  the 
result  of  Greek  influences. 

The  study  of  the  art  of  language  is  of  later  origin  than  the 
study  of  grammar,  but  it,  too,  was  eventually  incorporated  into 
the  course  of  general  education.  The  rhetoric  and  poetics  of 
India,  whose  beginnings  can  be  traced  to  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ,  treat  of  the  meaning  of  words,  of  the  different 
kinds  of  poetical  compositions,  the  different  kinds  of  style,  and 
the  ornaments  of  composition.3 


1  In  the  introduction  to  his  translation  of  the  Panschatantra  (Leipzig,   1859, 
Vol.  I.),  Benfey  deals  with  the  influence  of  ancient  Indian  material  upon  the  folk- 
lore of  Asia  and  Europe.      Cf.  Max  Miiller,  Migration  of  Fables,  in  vol.  3  of  his 
Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 

2  Mention  is  made  of  a  textbook  bearing  the  title  Gandharva-  Veda,  The  Science 
of  the  Gandharvas,  or  celestial  musicians.     It  is  to  India  that  we  can  trace  the  prac- 
tice of  designating  the  musical  tones  according  to  their  first  letters;  Benfey  (Indien 
in  Ersch  and  Gruber's  Enzyklopddie)  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  Indian  formula: 
sa  ri  ga  ma  pa  dha  ni,  was  first  brought  to  the  Persians,  next  to  the  Arabians,  and 
finally  to  the  Italians  (Guido  d'Arezzo).     Cf.  A.  Weber,  History  of  Indian  Liter- 
ature,^. 272. 

3  Ballantyne  (I.e.)  quotes  the  following  from  the  textbook  in  use  at  present: 
"What  is  a  sentence?"     "A  sentence  is  a  combination  of  words,  which  can  be 
joined  together,  which  are  actually  related  to  one  another,  and  are  placed  together.  " 
A  few  examples  are  given  to  illustrate  the  definition.     "He  sprinkles  with  fire," 
is  no  sentence,  because  the  words  cannot  be  joined  together.     "Cow,  horse,  man, 
elephant,"  is  no  sentence,  because  no  relation  is  expressed.     If  I  now  say  " Dev- 
atta"  and  after  twenty-four  hours,  "goes,"  I  have  no  sentence,  because  the  words 
are  separated  from  each  other. — "What  is  a  word?"     "A  word  is  a  succession  of 
letters,  joined  by  usage,  but  not  in  a  logical  way  (i.e.,  not  in  the  order  as  they  occur 
in  the  system  of  sounds),  and  which  conveys  some  meaning."     The  meaning  may 


94  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

Logic,  considered  the  auxiliary  science  of  dogmatics,  remains 
ever  in  closest  relation  to  it.  It  is  the  science  of  the  three  argu- 
ments and  their  sources:  perception,  conclusion,  and  the  author- 
ity of  the  sacred  writings.  The  Greeks  report,  indeed,  of  Indian 
logicians  who  practiced  their  art  professionally,  but  the  Brah- 
mans  looked  down  upon  them  as  idle  chatterers  and  refused  to 
acknowledge  them  as  teachers.1 

While  only  one  of  the  mathematical  sciences  (astronomy)  is 
numbered  with  the  Vedic  sciences,  the  others  may  also  be  traced 
to  theology  as  to  their  first  source.  The  first  traces  of  Indian 
algebra  occur  in  Pingala's  Treatise  on  Prosody,  in  the  last  chap- 
ter of  which  the  permutations  of  longs  and  shorts  possible  in  a 
metre  with  a  fixed  number  of  syllables  are  set  forth  in  an  enig- 
matical form.2  Notes  on  geometry  occur  first  in  ritualistic  writ- 
ings. Though  mathematics  belonged  to  the  priestly  sciences,  it 
exerted  some  influence  on  the  intellectual  life  of  the  whole  nation. 
The  Hindus  are  the  authors  of  our  system  of  notation,  which  is 
based  on  the  ingenious  idea  of  denoting  by  the  position  of  a 
figure  what  power  of  10  is  its  factor.  This  system  has  been 
adopted  by  all  civilized  peoples,  and  it  has  made  possible  all 
the  progress  that  has  since  been  made  in  arithmetic.  It  could 
be  invented  only  among  such  a  nation  as  gave  much  of  its  time 
to  numbers  and  found' therein  much  pleasure;  and  the  invention 
once  made  was  a  potent  force  in  developing  the  nation's  sense 
and  science  of  numbers.3  A  further  proof  of  the  Hindus'  math- 
ematical ability,  as  given  outside  the  ranks  of  scholarship,  may 
be  seen  in  the  game  of  chess,  which  was  invented  in  India,  and 
which  is  the  most  ingenious  of  all  games  of  war  and  a  splendid 
school  for  the  training  of  the  place-sense  and  of  the  faculty  of 
combination. 

4.  The  real  representatives  of  Indian  scholarship  are  the 
Brahmans,  who  trace  their  origin  to  the  head  of  the  god  from 

be  three-fold:  expressed,  suggested,  or  understood.  In  kind,  the  words  are  either 
names  of  gender,  names  of  qualities,  names  of  persons,  or  names  of  actions. — There 
are  two  varieties  in  poetry;  the  first  deals  with  what  is  seen,  and  the  other  with 
what  is  but  heard. 

1  Strabo,  XV,  p.  719. 

2  A.  Weber,  History  of  Indian  Literature,  p.  256,  footnote. 

3  The  Indian  figures  1-9  are  abbreviations  of  the  initial  letters  of  the  numerals 
themselves;  the  zero,  the  creation  of  which  is  the  real  speculative  achievement  of 
the  whole  system,  has  arisen  out  of  the  first  letter  of  the  word  sunya  (empty).     The 
Arabs  were  the  first  to  borrow  of  the  Indians  the  decimal  system  of  notation  with 
its  symbols,  and  they  are  responsible  for  its  becoming  widely  known  in  the  West. 
Cf.  Chapter  XIX,  infra. 


INDIA 


95 


whose  members  all  the  world  has  sprung.  But  the  study  of  the 
Vedas  was  open  to  all  Aryans,  /.  <?.,  to  all  members  of  the  Indo- 
Iranian  race,  even  if  they  belonged  to  the  castes  of  the  warriors 
or  merchants.  The  ostracized  caste  of  the  Sudra  is  separated 
Trom  the  rest  not  only  socially,  but  also  ethnographically.  The 
ceremony  of  girding  the  young  Aryan  with  the  sacred  cord 
marks  his  reception  into  the  national  religion;  the  Brahman  boy 
is  received  in  his  eighth  year,  the  son  of  the  Kshatriya  after  his 
eleventh,  and  the  young  Vaisya  after  his  twelfth  year.  Imme- 
diately after  their  reception,  the  study  of  grammar  is  taken  up 
in  preparation  for  the  study  of  the  Vedas.  A  Brahman  is  the 
teacher;  the  boys  live  with  him  and  serve  him,  and  they  are 
treated  as  apprentices  rather  than  as  pupils.  The  methods  ob- 
taining in  the  schools  are  solemn,  quaint,  and  old-fashioned;1 
but  the  discipline  is  mild.  To  master  one  Veda  is  the  work  of 
twelve  years,  and  thus  48  years  are  required  for  mastering  the 
four  Vedas.  Religious  ceremonies,  called  the  "second  birth"  of 
the  pupil,  mark  the  end  of  his  schooling.  Most  pupils  leave 
the  teacher's  house  at  about  the  age  of  twenty;  others,  however, 
remain  with  the  guru  (the  venerable  one)  for  their  whole  life. 
Brahman  schools  with  collegiate  forms  of  instruction  are  of 
later  origin  and  are  most  probably  imitations  of  the  Moham- 
medan mosque  schools  (madrassehs).  As  the  religion  of  India  is 
not  centred  in  certain  temples,  and  as  its  science,  too,  is  not 
centred  in  the  libraries  or  archives  of  temples,  so  its  higher 
educational  system  also  lacks  the  collegiate  forms  of  instruction. 


i)  The  Rigveda-Pratisakhya,  edited  by  Max  Miiller  in  1869,  gives  the  following 
directions:  "The  teacher  shall  for  the  recitation  observe  the  following  points.  He 
shall  be  seated  so  as  to  be  facing  either  the  east,  the  north,  or  the  north-east.  If 
there  be  but  one  or  two  pupils,  they  shall  be  seated  so  as  to  face  the  south;  if  more 
pupils  be  present,  they  may  be  seated  according  to  the  size  of  the  room.  After  all 
the  pupils  have  embraced  the  teacher's  feet  and  after  they  have  placed  them  on 
their  head,  they  shall  invite  the  teacher  to  begin  the  instruction,  'Master,  read'. 
The  teacher  shall  reply,  'Om!  Let  the  first  prayer — which  is  both  for  the  teacher 
and  his  pupils  the  gate  leading  to  heaven — mark  the  beginning  of  all  study.'  .... 
Complying  with  their  request,  the  teacher  shall  begin  to  recite  and  he  shall  recite 
every  word  twice.  As  soon  as  the  teacher  has  so  recited  several  words,  the  first 
pupil  shall  be  called  upon  to  repeat  the  first  word.  When  asking  for  an  explanation 
the  teacher  shall  be  addressed,  Bho  (Reverend  Sir);  the  assent  to  the  explanation 
given  shall  be  expressed  thus,  Om  Bho.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  pupils  to  mem- 
orize a  lesson  after  it  has  been  finished  in  this  way;  they  shall  then  continue  to 
repeat  it,  being  careful  to  preserve  the  same  high  tone,  and  not  to  contract  words 
that  are  independent  of  one  another,  and  to  indicate  by  a  slight  separation  com- 
pound terms After  all  pupils  have  then  recited  in  this  manner  their  lessons, 

they  shall  again  embrace  the  feet  of  the  teacher  and  be  dismissed  for  the  day. " 


96  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

The  schools  for  writing  and  reading  are  numerous,  though  they 
also  lack  a  fixed  and  settled  organization.  In  most  cases  the 
pupils  are  seated  in  the  open,  grouped  about  their  teacher,  and 
write  on  palm  leaves.  If  their  number  be  very  large,  the  teacher 
employs  the  more  advanced  pupils  to  instruct  the  others.  Dr. 
Andrew  Bell,  superintendent  of  the  Military  Male  Orphan  Asy- 
lum in  Madras  (died  1832),  learned  this  method  of  the  Hindus 
and  introduced  it  into  Europe,  where  it  became  known  as  the 
monitorial  system  of  instruction.  In  face  of  the  widespread 
illiteracy  in  modern  India — 92.5%  in  1901  for  the  population 
over  ten  years  of  age1 — it  would  seem  that  the  conditions  two 
thousand  and  more  years  ago  were,  if  anything,  superior:  the 
Macedonians  were  surprised,  when  invading  the  Pundjab,  at 
the  sign  posts  which  they  met  on  all  sides  on  the  roads,  and 
which  gave  the  place-names  as  well  as  the  distances.2 

5.  There  are  many  testimonies  that  go  to  prove  that  the 
Hindus  attach  great  importance  to  knowledge.  "  "Knowledge," 
says  Bhartrihari,  "is  man's  greatest  ornament;  it  is  an  un- 
doubted treasure;  it  assures  its  possessor  of  pleasures,  glory, 
and  good  fortune.  It  is  the  teacher  of  the  wise,  the  friend  in  a 
strange  land,  a  power  that  will  never  fail,  a  gem  of  the  purest 
ray;  and  it  is  esteemed  of  kings.  Deprive  man  of  knowledge, 
and  he  sinks  to  the  level  of  the  brute."3  In  the  Code  of  Manu, 
the  most  authoritative  of  Indian  law  books,  we  read:  "He  who 
imparts  the  sacred  knowledge  of  the  Vedas  is  deserving  of  a 
greater  veneration  than  he  who  is  responsible  merely  for  the 
existence  of  the  body,  because  the  second  birth  assures  one  of 
immortal  life,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  also  in  the  next.  What 
the  parents  produce  is  the  birth  of  only  a  mortal  being,  but  the 
birth  given  by  the  teacher  of  the  Veda  is  the  birth  to  a  real, 
never-ending  life,  which  is  free  from  the  ravages  alike  of  death 
and  old  age.  He  who  imparts  the  sacred  lore,  be  this  great  or 
small,  shall  be  known  as  guru,  the  venerable  sire. "  The  same 
high  esteem  for  learning  inspired  the  view  that  man  is  thrice 
a  debtor:  he  is  first  indebted  to  the  wise,  as  to  the  authors  and 
fathers  of  the  faith;  only  in  the  second  place  is  he  indebted  to 
the  gods;  and  in  the  last  place  to  his  parents.5  These  expres- 
sions of  the  high  value  of  learning  agree  in  showing  that  knowl- 

1  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  edited  by  Paul  Monroe,  s.v.  Illiteracy. 

2  Megasthenes,  frg.  34,  3  Schwanb. 

3  Bohtlingk,  Sanskrit-Chrestomathie,  St.  Petersburg,  1845,  p.  199. 

4  Manu,  II,  146-149. 

5  Max  Muller,  Religion  und  Philosophic,  Deutsche  Rundschau,  1879,  I,  pp.  57  ff. 


EGYPT.  97 

edge  is  prized,  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  a  means  to  an  end; 
it  is  prized  as  being  the  path  that  leads  to  mystic  perfection. 
Once  this  is  attained,  the  treasures  of  knowledge  are  valueless; 
they  have  been  superseded  and  are  neglected  and  forgotten. 
The  Hindu's  pursuit  of  knowledge  presents  a  strange  process: 
in  his  boyhood  he  is  eager  to  acquire  the  knowledge  of  the  Veda; 
in  his  manhood  he  will  faithfully  observe  its  minutest  regu- 
lations; but  in  his  old  age  he  will  be  rapt  in  deep  speculation, 
entirely  oblivious  of  the  knowledge  and  laws  he  had  held  sacred 
in  the  days  of  his  strength.  "We  may  still  meet  Brahman  fam- 
ilies whose  children  will  con  over,  and  learn  by  heart,  and  recite 
by  rote  the  old  sacred  songs,  and  whose  father,  too,  will  not 
allow  one  day  to  pass  without  the  sacred  rites  and  ceremonies, 
but  whose  aged  grandfather  will  openly  profess  supreme  con- 
tempt for  the  elaborate  ritual;  for  he  holds  the  gods  of  the  Vedas 
to  be  but  names,  vain  and  meaningless  abstractions  of  what  he 
knows  to  be  beyond  the  power  of  expression;  and  he  seeks  and 
finds  his  satisfaction  and  peace  where  alone  it  can  be  found,  in 
the  highest  philosophical  speculation;  and  the  latter  is  to  him  a 
religion  more  sacred  than  any  forms  of  the  national  worship; 
his  speculation  is  the  realization  of  the  entire  Veda\  it  is  Ved- 
antci)  the  end  and  aim  and  fulfillment  of  the  Veda."1  A  similar 
disintegration  of  knowledge  may  be  found  among  the  one-sided 
mystics  of  all  ages,  but  it  has  been  systematized  by  no  other 
nation.  Still,  the  Hindus  accomplished  much  in  science  and 
general  education,  which  is  the  more  surprising  as  the  final  end 
of  all  their  intellectual  efforts  is  the  futura  oblivio. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Egypt. 

i.  There  is  an  unmistakable  analogy  between  Egyptian  and 
Indian  .education.  In  Egypt,  as  in  India,  collections  of  hymns 
are  the  basis  of  theological  literature,  and  the  latter  is  the  source 
and  beginning  of  science  and  of  educational  efforts.  Again,  in 
Egypt,  as  in  India,  the  priests  are  in  charge  of  all  learning,  and 
all  educational  efforts  must  subserve  the  ethico-religious  inter- 
ests. Yet  'there  are  noteworthy  differences  between  the  edu- 
cational systems  of  the  two  countries. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  69. 

7       ' 


98  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

The  sacred  literature  of  ancient  Egypt  consisted  of  the  42 
books  whose  authorship  was  ascribed  to  the  god  Thoth,  whom 
the  Greeks  worshipped  under  the  name  of  Hermes;  and  hence 
the  42  books  became  known  as  the  Hermetic  Books.  The 
oldest  book  and  the  one  held  in  highest  esteem  is  the  book  of 
hymns.  It  is  thought  to  be  identical  with  the  collection  of 
hymns  found  among  the  papyri  stored  in  the  Egyptian  tombs, 
and  published  in  1842  by  Lepsius  as  The  Book  of  the  Dead} 
The  second  book  treats  of  the  right,  or  royal,  path;  along  with 
the  book  of  hymns  it  was  carried  at  the  head  of  all  solemn  pro- 
cessions, and  its  contents  were  known  to  the  whole  nation.  The 
contents  of  the  next  four  books,  the  books  of  the  horoscope, 
may  be  described  as  scientific,  for  they  treated  of  the  heavens, 
the  sun,  moon,  and  the  motions  of  the  stars.  The  next  ten 
books  contained  the  learning  of  the  temple  scribe,  the  Hiero- 
grammateus,  i.  e.>  the  science  of  hieroglyphics,  geography,  the 
laws  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  planets,  topography,  survey- 
ing (especially  in  its  connection  with  the  Nile),  and  lastly  the 
science  of  building  and  ornamenting  temples.  The  next  ten 
books  dealt  with  liturgy,  the  science  of  the  master  of  ceremonies, 
the  Stolist.  The  next  ten  books  contained  matter  reserved  to 
the  priests,  and  treated  in  full  the  functions  of  the  high-priest; 
dealing  with  the  science  of  the  gods  and  of  laws,  they  may  be 
called  compendiums  of  dogmatics  and  jurisprudence.  The  last 
six  books  never  enjoyed  the  same  authority  as  the  others,  and 
were  not  considered  canonical;  they  treated  of  the  "qualities  of 
bodies,  of  bodily  diseases  and  their  cure,  and  of  women. " 

These  writings,  of  which  a  copy  was  deposited  in  the  archives 
of  every  temple,  are  the  core  of  a  very  extensive  literature. 
The  Egyptians  themselves  give  36,525  as  the  number  of  all  the 
writings  belonging  to  this  class  of  literature.  The  number  quoted 
is  that  of  the  great  Sothic  period  and  is  obtained  by  multiplying 
the  number  of  days  in  a  year  by  one  hundred. 

2.  In  comparison  with  the  Vedic  sciences,  the  books  of 
Thoth  give  scant  attention  to  grammar,  treating  in  this  regard 
only  of  hieroglyphics.  More  attention  was  given  to  mathe- 
matics, astronomy,  geography,  and  medicine.  A  striking  fea- 
ture of  Egyptian  literature  is  the  strong  interest  in  history:  the 
Egyptians  recorded  in  their  annals  the  deeds  of  their  kings; 


1  A  translation  by    Birch  has  been  publish  :d  in   Bunsen's  Egypt's  Place  in 
Universal  History,  V,  66-333. 

2  Clemens  Alex.,  Strom.,  VI,  4,  p.  269  ed.  Sylburg. 


EGYPT.  99 

inscriptions  told  all  that  was  noteworthy  in  the  history  of  the 
race;  the  nation  was  proud  of  its  knowledge  of  the  past,  and 
was  eager  to  communicate  it  to  the  foreigner.1 

The  several  departments  of  science  were  entrusted  to  the 
individual  orders  of  priests.  They  were  to  know  by  heart  and 
to  be  able  to  quote  freely  the  books  of  Thoth,  but  only  the 
highest  order  of  priests  were  expected  to  command  a  universal 
knowledge.  Some  knowledge  was,  despite  these  restrictions,  ex- 
pected of  the  people  at  large.  Among  the  treasures  accessible 
to  all  were  the  social  gifts  granted  by  Thoth:  language,  the  art 
of  writing,  the  worship  of  the  deity,  the  knowledge  of  the  stars, 
music,  and  physical  culture.2  Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  ancient  Egypt  seem  to  have  been  able  to  read  and  write. 
"The  temples  spoke  in  letters  of  heroic  size;  the  worship  of  the 
gods  and  the  songs  sung  in  praise  of  princes  and  kings  impressed 
the  teachings  of  religion  and  kept  alive  the  memory  of  the 
nation's  glorious  past;  the  inscriptions  were  engraved  in  imper- 
ishable marble  and  porphyry,  and  would  continue  for  centuries 
and  ages  to  speak  their  message  to  the  race. "  Rolls  of  parch- 
ment were  placed  beside  the  dead  to  cheer  them  on  their  mys- 
terious journey.  Pious  sayings  and  proverbs  were  engraved  on 
the  articles  in  daily  use.  Court  trials  were  transacted  in  writ- 
ing, and  all  contracts  had  to  be  made  in  writing.  In  fact,  every- 
thing of  any  importance  was  written  down;  and  gods,  as  well  as 
men,  are  often  represented  as  engaged  in  writing.  The  hiero- 
glyphic characters — there  were  about  650,  of  which  some  repre- 
sented simple  sounds,  while  the  majority  represented  compound 
sounds — are  by  most  Egyptologists  explained  symbolically,  but 
Seyffarth  and  his  followers  explain  them  phonetically.  They 
are  the  basis  of  the  later  development  of  the  hieratic  style  of 
writing,  and  the  latter,  by  changing  to  a  still  more  simplified 
form  of  representation,  finally  evolved  what  is  known  as  the 
demotic  or  epistolographic  style,  which  comprised  about  350 
characters.4  The  priests  pursued  the  more  advanced  study  of 
these  various  styles,5  while  the  lower  castes  acquired  only  an 
elementary  knowledge  of  reading  and  writing.6 

1  Her.,  II,  3  and  100.     Diod.,  I,  73.     Tac.,  Ann.,  II,  60. 

2  Diod.,  I,  16.     Cf.  Plato,  Phadr.,  p.  213. 

3  Heinrich  Wuttke,  Geschichte  der  Schrift,  Leipzig,  1872,  pp.  576  ff. 

4  M.  Uhlemann,  Thoth  oder  die  Wissenschaften  der  alien  Aegypter,  Gottingen, 
1850,  pp.  173  ff- 

5  Diod.,  I,  81. 

6  Plato,  Legg.,  VII,  p.  819. 


IOO  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

3.  Arithmetic  and  geometry  were  also  studied  by  the  chil- 
dren of  the  masses.  Plato  has  naught  but  praise  for  the  extent 
to  which  the  knowledge  of  these  branches  had  spread  among  the 
whole  nation,  but  he  finds  fault  with  the  practice  of  devoting 
the  knowledge  of  them  to  exclusively  practical  ends  instead  of 
employing  it,  at  least  in  part,  for  higher  and  cultural  purposes.1 
The  two  subjects  were  of  great  practical  benefit  for  the  trades 
and  commerce,  especially  for  architecture  and  administration. 
The  Egyptian  yard,  the  unit  of  measurement,  is  remarkable  for 
the  exactness  of  its  division,  and  the  still  extant  ground-plans  of 
tombs  agree  perfectly  with  the  execution.  The  practice  of  hav- 
ing charts  of  fields  and  maps  of  the  different  sections  of  the 
country  made,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  off  the  castes  and  of 
taking  up  the  census,  dates  back  to  the  earliest  times.2  The 
Egyptian  system  of  notation  lacks  the  speculative  idea  of  the 
Indian  system,3  but  their  theory  of  numbers  as  well  as  their 
geometry,  both  of  which  stimulated  Greek  philosophers,  must 
have  had  a  philosophical  foundation.4  Astronomy  and  astrol- 
ogy could  not,  because  of  their  nature,  be  cultivated  so  exten- 
sively as  arithmetic  and  geometry;  but  the  mere  fact  that  they 
are  mentioned  twice  in  the  sacred  books,  once  as  the  higher 
science  of  the  temple  scribe  and  then  as  the  elementary  science 
of  the  horoscope,  demonstrates  that  the  rudiments  of  them  were 
accessible  to  the  people  at  large.  It  is  certain  that  all  Egyp- 
tians were  familiar  with  the  calendar  and  its  mythological- 
astronomical  apparatus,  as  well  as  with  the  horoscope  and  the 
observations  and  superstitions  on  which  it  was  based.  The 
public  monuments  recorded  not  only  all  important  events  in 
minute  detail,  but  gave,  besides,  a  description  of  the  constel- 
lations visible  in  the  heavens  at  the  time;  and  it  was  a  general 
practice  to  foretell  for  every  newborn  child  the  events  of  its  life 


1  Ibid.,  VII,  p.  819  and  V,  p.  747;  Rep.,  IV,  p.  436. 

2  M.  Uhlemann,  I.e.,  pp.  262  ff. 

3  The  numbers  i,  10,  100,  1000  were  represented  by  symbols,  which,  by  being 
placed  a  certain  number  of  times,  expressed  how  many  times  the  number  which 
they  represented  was  to  be  understood.     The  use  of  these  symbols  never  extended 
beyond  Egypt,  but  the  Egyptian  symbol  for  addition,  a  cross,  and  the  manner 
of  writing  fractions  (originally  the  picture  of  a  mouth  above  which  the  numerator 
and  below  which  the  denominator  was  placed)  are  in  universal  use.     Cf.  H.  Brugsch, 
Numerorum  apud  veteres  Aegyptios  demoticorum  doctrina,  Berol.,  1839. 

4  E.   Roth,   Geschichte  der  abendldndischen  Philosophic,   Mannheim,  1862,    II, 
586  ff. 


EGYPT.  IOI 

from  the  aspect  of  the  heavens  at  the  moment  of  its  birth.1 
Music  was  closely  allied  with  astronomy;  a  planet  was  assigned 
to  each  of  the  seven  notes;  the  three  principal  notes,  the  pri- 
mary, the  quint,  and  the  octave,  were  representative  of  the 
seasons:  the  high  note,  of  summer;  the  low,  of  winter;  and  the 
middle,  of  spring.2  But  there  was  an  even  closer  connection 
between  music  and  the  national  religion.  The  least  change  in 
vocal  or  instrumental  music  was  strictly  prohibited,  and  the 
priests  were  the  musical  censors,3  which  fact,  fan  from  indicating 
a  slow  development  of  the  art,  proves  that  it  was  practised  so 
extensively  as  to  threaten  a  departure  from  the  standards  of 
sacred  music.  It  would  seem  that  the  physical  culture  in  vogue 
among  the  Egyptians  represented  a  system  of  national  gym- 
nastics, though  the  Greeks  deny  this.  Yet  Thoth-Hermes  was 
considered  the  inventor  of  the  palaestra,  of  eurythmy,  and  of 
physical  culture  in  general;  cleanliness,  anointing,  and  the  prac- 
tice of  dietetics  were  Egyptian  customs  of  old  and  national 
standing. 

4.  The  archives  and  libraries  that  were  connected  with  the 
temples,  first  suggested  the  establishment  of  priests'  colleges, 
and  these  in  turn  proved  the  centres  of  a  well  organized  system 
of  education.  The  description  given  by  the  Egyptologist  G. 
Ebers  of  the  temple  schools  of  Thebes  shows  them  to  have  been 
highly  organized.  These  schools  were  patterned  after  the  older 
institutions  at  Heliopolis  and  Memphis.  They  were  grouped 
about  an  institution  of  higher  learning,  where  all  such  as  were 
aspiring  to  the  professions  of  priests,  physicians,  mathemati- 
cians, astronomers,  or  grammarians  could  not  only  secure  an 
adequate  training,  but  were  furthermore  assured,  once  they  had 
reached  the  highest  degree  of  knowledge  and  had  been  enrolled 
among  the  scribes,  of  a  free  home.  The  savants  had  access  to  a 
large  library,  which  housed  thousands  of  papyri  and  with  which 
a  papyrus  factory  was  connected.  Some  of  the  savants  taught 
the  younger  pupils  who  were  educated  in  the  elementary  school 

1  The  belief  in  the  horoscope  is  founded  on  the  idea  that  the  soul  of  the  child 
has  come  down  from  the  world  of  the  stars.     The  horoscope  itself  is  the  degree  of 
the  ecliptic  which  rises  at  the  hour  of  birth.  The  planet  next  to  this  is  considered 
the  star  of  life.     Cf.  Roth,  I.e.,  I,  p.  214. 

2  Heinrich  Wuttke,  I.e.,  p.  569.     Diod.,  I,  16. 

3  Plato,  Legg.,  II,  p.  656  and  VII,  p.  799. 

4  In  the  novel  Uarda,Vo\.  I,  pp.  17  ff.,  Ebers  vouches  for  the  reliability 
of  his  description:  all  the  details  are  drawn  from  sources  contemporary  with 
Ramses  II.  and  his  successor  Menephthah,  /'.  e,y  1324-1230  B.  C. 


IO2  ORIENTAL    EDUCATION. 

connected  with  the  Seti-House,  the  name  of  the  whole  establish- 
ment. This  elementary  school  was  open  to  all  sons  of  free-born 
citizens,  and  was  attended  by  more  than  100  pupils,  who  lodged 
and  boarded  in  the  same  institution.  The  pensioners  of  the 
temple,  the  sons  of  noble  families,  sometimes  even  the  sqns  of 
the  king,  lived  in  a  separate  building.  Before  advancing  from 
the  elementary  to  the  higher  school  the  pupils  had  to  pass  an 
examination.  Having  passed  this  examination,  the  student 
would  select  one  of  the  higher  teachers  as  his  special  teacher, 
and  the  latter,  being  once  chosen,  had  the  exclusive  charge  of 
his  training,  and  the  pupil  owed  him  for  life  the  allegiance  of  a 
client  to  his  patron.  A  second  examination  had  to  be  passed 
before  the  student  could  be  admitted  to  the  office  of  scribe  or 
any  other  public  office  of  the  State.  Those  pupils  who  showed 
talent  for  sculpture,  architecture,  or  painting  were  trained  in  a 
special  art  school;  they  likewise  chose  their  own  teachers.  In 
most  cases  the  pupil's  choice  of  a  profession  was  dictated  by 
that  of  his  father:  documents  have  been  found  in  the  grave  of 
an  architect  stating  that  his  family  practised  this  profession  for 
twenty-five  successive  generations. — All  the  teachers  of  these 
various  schools  were  priests  assigned  to  duty  in  the  Seti-Temple. 
There  were  more  than  800  priests  in  charge  of  the  teaching; 
they  were  divided  into  five  classes,  and  were  governed  by  the 
three  "Prophets."  The  rooms  of  the  priests  opened  on  the  cor- 
ridors of  the  different  buildings,  whose  courtyards  (paved  and 
covered  with  mats)  were  the  "classrooms,"  and  the  students 
lived  in  the  stories  overhead.  The  discipline  was  severe:  "The 
pupil's  ears  are  found  on  his  back;  strike  him,  and  he  will  lend 
you  his  ear,"  is  the  opi'nion  of  an  educational  writer  of  ancient 
Egypt.  Much  attention  was  given  to  memorizing.  The  author- 
ity of  the  teacher  was  supreme,  and  this  accounts  for  the  rigor- 
ous training  of  the  will.  The  importance  attached  to  memory- 
work  prevented  premature  philosophizing. 

The  educational  system  of  ancient  Egypt  shows,  in  contrast 
to  that  of  India,  a  realistic  tendency:  the  Egyptians,  though  also 
interested  in  theological  speculations,  are  interested,  besides,  in 
historical  and  physical  realities;  they  also  speculate  about  num- 
ber and  space,  but  they  turn  the  knowledge  of  these  matters  to 
practical  account;  they  are  not  content  with  satisfying  the  needs 
of  the  mind,  but  have  an  open  eye  for  the  needs  of  the  body  as 
well;  they  systematize  and  organize  all  that  helps  to  conserve 
and  transmit  the  treasures  of  the  mind.  In  ancient  Egypt, 
however,  just  as  in  India,  religion  is  the  basis  of  all  knowledge 


THE   NATIONS   EMPLOYING  CUNEIFORM  WRITING.  IO3 

and  art  and  science:  the  earth  is  "the  house  of  adoration,"  the 
worship  of  the  deity  is  the  final  end  of  all  human  activity,  and 
knowledge  is  to  be  sought  only  as  a  means  for  arriving  at  ethico- 
religious  perfection;  books  are  to  be  a  "sanatorium  of  the  soul." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Nations  Employing  Cuneiform  Writing. 

i.  The  spelling  out  of  the  hieroglyphics  has  revealed  much 
that  was  previously  unknown  of  ancient  Egypt,  and  similar 
results  may  be  expected  from  the  decipherment  of  the  cuneiform 
writings  for  the  nations  of  the  Near  East.  Much  as  the  Turan- 
ian Chaldeans,  the  Semitic  Babylonians  and  Ninevites,  and  the 
Iranians  differ  ethnographically,  they  are  one  in  the  use  of  this 
writing.  The  culture  of  Egypt  antedates,  according  to  the  view 
prevailing  at  present,  the  culture  of  these  nations,  and  so  the 
latter  owe  the  beginning  of  their  educational  development  to 
Egypt.  The  Chaldeans,  having  been  influenced  directly  by 
Egypt,  transmitted  their  civilization  to  their  Semitic  conquerors, 
and  these  in  turn  passed  on  the  intellectual  heritage  to  the 
Medes  and  Persians.  According  to  another  view,  however,  the 
Babylonians  were  the  teachers  of  the  Egyptians.2  The  deci- 
pherment of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  has  in  the  history  of 
the  Chaldean  and  Semitic  peoples  revealed  the  case  —  certainly 
the  earliest  known  case  in  the  history  of  education  —  where  the 
organized  culture  of  an  older  people  was  transmitted  whole  and 
entire  to  a  younger  people. 

While  excavating  at  Nineveh,  Layard  discovered  the  remains 
of  the  royal  brick  library,  of  which  some  30,0x30  fragments  were 
sent  to  the  British  Museum.3  The  tablets  record  matter  per- 
taining to  mythology,  history,  geography,  statistics,  natural  his- 
tory, astronomy,  arithmetic,  architecture,  and  grammar;  and 
the  different  colors  of  the  bricks  (black,  grey,  blue,  violet,  red, 


\s  the   inscription   placed   by  Osymandas   on    the    library 
which  he  built  at  Thebes.     Diod.,  I,  49. 

2  Hommel,  Die  semitischen  Volker  und  Sprachen,  Vol.  I,  1887. 

3  For  the  following  cf.  Hilprecht,  Explorations  in  Bible  Lands,  Philadelphia, 
1903,  I,  1-577;  Booth,  The  Discovery  and  Decipherment  of  the  Trilingual  Cunei- 

form Inscriptions,  London,  1902;  Vigouroux,  La  Bible  et  les  decouvertes  mo- 
dernes  en  Palestine,  en  Egypte  et  en  Assyrie,  Paris,  1896;  Kaulen,  Assyrien  und 
Babylonien,  Freiburg,  4th  ed.,  1891. 


IO4  ORIENTAL    EDUCATION. 

yellow,  brown,  white)  signify  the  different  sciences  treated.  One 
of  the  grammar  tablets  speaks  of  the  origin  of  the  library:  "Pal- 
ace of  Asurbanipal,  King  of  the  World,  King  of  Assyria,  to 
whom  the  god  Nebo  and  the  goddess  of  instruction  have  given 
ears  to  hear,  and  whose  eyes  they  have  opened  to  see  the  foun- 
dation of  government.  They  have  revealed  to  the  kings,  my 
predecessors,  this  style  of  cuneiform  writing.  I  have  written  on 
tablets  the  revelation  of  the  god  Nebo,  the  lord  god  of  highest 
knowledge;  I  have  ordered  the  tablets  and  have  given  them  a 
place  in  my  palace  for  the  instruction  of  my  subjects."  The 
royal  founder  of  this  library  is  the  fourth  of  his  name,  the  war- 
like Sardanapalus  of  the  Greeks,  who  reigned  in  Nineveh  about 
the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ.  But  the  mon- 
uments of  learning  which  he  collected,  are  not  the  work  of  the 
Semitic  Assyrians,  but  translations  from  the  older  literature  of 
the  Chaldeans,  who  were  the  inventors  of  cuneiform  writing 
and  the  earliest  representatives  of  the  civilization  of  Near  Asia. 
To  acquire  an  education,  the  Assyrian  had  to  go  to  the  works 
of  the  Chaldeans,  written  in  an  old-fashioned  style  of  writing 
and  couched  in  the  Ural-Altaic  language,  of  which  the  Finno- 
Ugric  is  a  subfamily.  It  was  the  study  of  this  language,  spoken 
and  written,  which  occupied  the  Prophet  Daniel  and  his  com- 
panions for  the  three  years  of  their  stay  at  the  court  of  Na- 
buchodonosor,  where  "they  received  knowledge  and  understand- 
ing in  every  book,  and  wisdom"  (Dan.  I,  4,  5,  17).  The  gram- 
mar tablets  prove  indirectly  that  the  Assyrians  could  acquire 
the  higher  learning  only  by  way  of  a  tongue  that  was  foreign  to 
them.  Out  of  about  100  of  these  tablets  a  reader  has  been 
made  out,  which  served  the  purpose  of  explaining  an  older  and 
foreign  idiom  in  the  language  with  which  all  were  familiar.  In 
the  reader  there  are  three  columns  of  characters,  and  the  first 
gives  the  Assyrian  symbol,  the  second,  the  symbol  for  the  Tu- 
ranian-Chaldaic  word  (which  is  to  be  explained),  while  the  last 
column  gives  the  explanation  in  Assyrian,  i.  e.,  in  a  Semitic 
language.  This  primer  is  undoubtedly  older  than  Asurbanipal's 
library,  and  is,  like  all  the  intellectual  work  of  Nineveh,  pat- 
terned after  Babylonian  models. 

The  ancient  writers  are  unanimous  in  praising  the  simplicity 
and  thoroughness  of  Chaldean  teaching.,  "They  (the  Chaldeans) 
transmit,"  says  Diodorus,  "their  wisdom  from  one  generation 
to  the  next:  the  boy  is  free  from  all  other  work  and  receives  all 
wisdom  from  his  father;  and  thus,  having  his  own  parent  as 
teacher,  the  boy's  instruction  is  comprehensive;  the  pupil  never 


THE  NATIONS  EMPLOYING  CUNEIFORM  WRITING.  IO5 

lacks  attention,  nor  does  he  hesitate  to  give  the  fullest  confi- 
dence to  his  master.  The  schooling  begins  almost  at  the  cradle, 
and  hence  with  the  natural  docility  of  the  child  and  the  many 
years  of  learning,  the  best  results  are  obtained. "  The  higher 
education  "of  such  as  had  a  mother-tongue  other  than  the  Chal- 
dean must  have  been  more  systematic;  what  the  Prophet  Daniel 
describes  is  a  sort  of  palace-school  for  Semitic  youths.  The 
rapidly  developing  science  of  Assyriology  promises  to  shed  more 
light  on  this  education,  which  must  have  been  rich  in  foreign 
elements.  The  opinion,  first  expressed  by  Professor  Fr.  De- 
litzsch,  in  his  lectures  Bible  and  Babel y  in  1902,  that  the  Mosaic 
Law  can  be  traced  back  to  older  Babylonian  laws,  has  given 
rise  to  much  discussion,  but  the  majority  of  scholars  agree  that 
the  monotheism  of  Moses,  the  underlying  principle  of  his  laws, 
was  not  influenced  by  Babylonian  teachings. 

2.  We  lack  the  data  to  give  an  adequate  description  of 
Persian  culture,  which  resulted  from  the  mixture  of  Chaldaic- 
Assyrian  elements  with  the  native  Aryan.  Greek  writers  praise 
the  Persians  for  training  their  children  to  be  truth-loving  and 
useful  members  of  the  race.  They  tell  us  that  the  wisest  of  the 
nation  were  chosen  for  teachers,  whose  duty  it  was  to  acquaint 
the  young,  by  word  and  song,  with  the  deeds  of  the  gods  and 
the  nation's  heroes.  The  education  of  the  king's  sons  was  en- 
trusted to  the  four  wisest  teachers,  and  it  was  their  duty  to 
make  the  princes  sincere,  just,  and  manly,  and  to  introduce 
them  to  the  occult  science  of  Zoroaster.2  The  Zoroastrian  sac- 
red writings,  discovered  in  the  i8th  century,  give  an  account  of 
this  magic  as  well  as  of  the  religion  of  ancient  Persia  and  the 
laws  based  thereon.  From  these  writings  we  see  that  the  priests 
enjoyed  in  Persia  as  much  esteem  as  in  India;  that  all  classes 
were  instructed  in  religion;  and,  incidentally,  we  learn  of  some 
customs  obtaining  in  the  Oriental  schools.3  Yet  we  cannot 

1  Diod.,  II,  29. 

2  Her.,  I,  136;  Strabo,  XV,  p.  733;  Plut.,  Ale.,  I,  p.  121. 

3  In  the  Zend-Avesta  we  find  occasionally  the  catechetical  method  as  well 
as  the  use  of  numbers  as  aids  to  the  memory.     We  quote  the  following  passage 
as  containing  these  two  elements  and  as  giving  in  the  briefest  compass  the 
social  and  moral  system  of  Iranian  civilization.     "The  speech  spoken   by 
Ahura-Mazda  contains  three  principal  points  and  mentions  five  castes  and 
four  masters.     Which  are  the  three  principal  points?     Good  thoughts,  good 
words,    and   good    actions.     Which    are    the    four   castes?     Priests,   warriors, 
tillers  of  the  soil,  and  merchants.  The  Lord  and  the  Law  teach  that  all  that  is 
praiseworthy  becomes  the  possession  of  him  whose  thoughts,  words,  and  ac- 
tions are  true.    The  deeds  of  the  pure  mean  for  the  world  an  increase  in  purity. 


IO6  .  ORIENTAL   EDUCATION. 

ascertain  whether  the  knowledge  and  learning  of  the  Persian 
priests  has,  as  in  India  and  Egypt,  ever  given  rise  to  various 
scientific  and  cultural  studies.  But  the  ease  and  quick  despatch 
with  which  the  Greeks-- -beginning  with  Alexander  the  Great — 
destroyed  the  national  culture,  superseding  it  with  their  own, 
may  be  considered  proof  enough  that  Persia  never  enjoyed  the 
wide-spread  and  diversified  education  of  India  and  Egypt.  Per- 
sian culture  had  not  entered  deeply  enough  into  the  life  of  the 
people  and  was  therefore  too  weak,  as  not  possessing  body 
enough,  to  offer  an  effective  resistance  to  the  encroachment  of 
foreign  elements.  It  fell  back  along  the  entire  line,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  Sassanids  the  ancient  spirit  of  the  nation  was  dead; 
it  had  to  be  recreated  entirely,  and  in  this  process  of  recreation 
the  remains  of  the  ancient  religion  proved  the  best  aid.  It  was 
only  at  this  time,  in  the  third  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
that  the  nation  took  up  the  scientific  study  of  its  sacred  writ- 
ings, and  this  study  was  continued  with  such  success  as  to  go 
beyond  the  translation  and  interpretation  of  the  text  and  to 
treat  cosmology,  natural  and  universal  history.  These  various 
subjects  are  treated  compendiously  in  the  Eundahish^  which  was 
compiled  in  the  Middle  Ages. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


The  Hebrews. 

i.  The  Hebrews  are  connected  with  the  other  Eastern  na- 
tions by  many  different  ties:  they  are  a  Semitic  people;  in  early 
times  they  were  influenced  by  Egyptian  civilization,  and  later 

Which  are  the  masters?  The  master  of  the  household,  the  chief  of  the  tribe, 
the  lord  of  the  community,  and  the  ruler  of  the  province;  Zarathustra  is  the 
fifth  master.  When  is  a  thought  good?  When  the  wisest  entertain  pure 
thoughts.  What  speech  is  good?  Sacred  speech.  W7hen  is  an  action  good? 
When  the  purest  perform  a  deed  while  praising  the  Lord.  Ahura-Mazda  has 
spoken.  Whom  has  he  addressed?  He  has  spoken  to  the  pure  of  heaven 
and  earth.  In  what  capacity  has  he  spoken?  He  has  spoken  as  the  best  of 
kings."  Jacna,  XIX,  44-58. 

'  The  book,  edited  and  translated  by  Ferdinand  Justi  (1868),  treats,  in 
concise  form  and  with  continual  reference  to  the  Avesta,  the  following  subjects: 
creation  of  the  world,  the  conflict  between  the  powers  of  good  and  evil,  the 
properties  of  the  earth,  mountains,  seas,  rivers,  animals,  etc.,  the  earliest  his- 
tory of  man,  generation,  resurrection,  motions  of  the  planets,  mythical  stories, 
chronology,  and  the  succession  of  dynasties. 


THE  HEBREWS.  IO7 

by  the  civilization  of  the  Near  East.  Still  they  occupy  among 
the  peoples  of  the  East  a  unique  position,  as  may  be  seen  also 
from  the  unique  type  of  education  that  they  developed.  Their 
sacred  books,  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  revered  alike  by  Jew  and 
Christian,  differ  from  the  canonical  books  of  polytheistic  peoples. 
Their  core  is  not  a  book  of  hymns,  from  which  the  sacred  law, 
sacred  history,  and  sacred  science  might  have  grown.  Instead, 
the  Bible  begins  with  history  and  bases  the  laws  upon  it,  and 
lets  the  hymns,  the  prophecies,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  proverbs 
follow  after.  The  gesta  Dei  are  the  foundation  of  the  whole; 
they  are  the  key  to  the  Law,  the  perennial  inspiration  of  piety 
and  meditation.  The  Pentateuch  lacks  the  tendency  of  the  Veda 
or  of  the  books  of  Thoth  to  encourage  speculative  and  poetic 
thought.  Nor  does  its  doctrine  of  the  one  God  lead  to  the 
study  of  astronomy,  or  of  magnitude,  or  of  numbers.  The  theo- 
cratic form  of  government  lends  little  glamor  to  the  deeds  of 
war  and  of  heroes;  and  a  form  of  worship  in  which  all  pictorial 
representations  are  forbidden,  retards  the  growth  of  the  fine  as 
well  as  the  mechanical  arts.  Thus  all  that  is  needed  for  the 
development  of  priestly  learning  no  less  than  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  work  of  teaching,  was  missing  with  the  Hebrews. 
In  content  their  teaching  was  restricted  to  the  Law  and  the 
history  of  the  nation,  but  in  form  it  was  the  more  free  and  va- 
ried: the  master  of  the  household,  the  priest,  the  prophet,  one 
and  all,  taught  the  word  of  God.  The  word  of  God  was,  like 
the  omnipresent  Lord,  to  strike  upon  the  ear  at  home  and  in 
the  field,  at  night  and  in  the  morning  (V.  Moses,  VI,  7).  It 
should  meet  the  eye  everywhere,  and  should  be  expressed  in 
written  words  and  meaningful  symbols;  and  the  language  of  the 
people  should  never  weary  of  explaining  the  worship  and  the 
monuments  of  God's  greatness.  (II.  Moses,  XII,  26;  XIII,  14; 
Josue,  IV,  6;  V.  Moses,  XXXII,  7.) 

The  Lord  Himself  has  trained  the  people  of  His  election  "as 
a  man  traineth  up  his  son"  (V.  Moses,  VIII,  5),  and  has  taught 
it  "profitable  things  and  led  it  in  the  way  it  should  walk" 
(Is.,  XLVIII,  17).  Thus  God  Himself  sanctifies  all  teaching 
and  discipline.  The  instruction  of  the  individual  is  only  a  repe- 
tition on  a  small  scale  of  what  the  Lord  has  wrought  in  the 
generations  of  His  chosen  people,  and  the  teacher  merely  im- 
plants anew  and  protects  from  the  natural  temptation  of  poly- 
theism that  higher  principle  which  had  been  planted  and  safe- 
guarded by  the  Lord  in  the  beginning.  Thus  the  teacher's 
vocation  reflects  God's  activity:  "They  that  are  learned  shall 


IO8  ORIENTAL   EDUCATION. 

shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament;  and  they  that  instruct 
many  to  justice,  as  stars  for  all  eternity"  (Dan.,  XII,  3). 
Each  individual  is,  like  the  whole  nation,  the  object  of  the 
loving  care  and  guidance  of  the  Lord,  who  knew  each  man 
"when  he  was  made  in  secret,  and  who  ordered  his  days  ere 
one  of  these  was  at  hand."  (Ps.  138,  15;  cf.  Ps.  21,  10;  Jer., 
I,  7.)  Consequently,  the  value  of  the  individual  personality  is 
rated  higher  among  the  Hebrews  than  among  the  other  ancient 
peoples  of  the  East;  the  religious  faith  of  the  individual  is  deep- 
ened, and  he  assumes  a  higher  nature.  For  instance,  no  people 
of  the  East  has  produced  any  individuality  that  could  compare 
with  the  clear-cut  characters  of  the  Hebrew  prophets.  With 
other  nations  an  individual  could  scarcely — and  that  but  rarely 
— rise  above  the  rank  and  file  of  the  caste. 

2.  Thus  the  ancient  Hebrews  were  a  teaching  people,  even 
if  they  had  no  organized  system  of  schools.  It  was  the  faith 
in  their  God  that  developed  their  minds  to  such  a  degree  as  is 
generally  attained  only  with  rich  and  free  elements  of  education. 
The  period  before  the  Exile  produced  only  the  beginnings  of  a 
system  of  education.  The  schools  of  the  prophets,  which  are 
frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture,1  do  not  invite  comparison 
with  the  temple  schools  of  ancient  Egypt.  They  have  been 
explained  in  most  diversified  ways.  The  Fathers  of  the  Church 
looked  upon  them  as  predecessors  of  monastic  institutions.  The 
rabbis  explained  them  as  academies.  Protestant  theologians 
considered  them  training  schools  for  preachers.  The  Deists  re- 
garded them  as  schools  of  free  thought  and  moral  philosophy. 
However,  it  may  now  be  considered  as  an  established  fact  that 
they  were  circles  of  disciples  who  gathered  about  men  eminent 
for  sanctity  and  divine  gifts,  for  the  purpose  of  conserving  the 
sacred  traditions  and  of  cultivating  the  art  of  sacred  music; 
these  gatherings,  however,  seem  to  have  lacked  the  character 
of  permanent  organizations.2 

We  have  no  records  of  popular  education  in  early  Hebrew 
history.  But  the  art  of  writing  appears  to  have  been  generally 
known,  as  may  be  concluded  from  the  law  that  every  Israelite 
should  write  the  most  important  of  God's  precepts  "in  the 
entry  and  on  the  doors  of  his  house"  (V.  Moses,  VI,  9).  It  is 
probable  that  the  Hebrews  continued  to  practice  the  art  of 
surveying,  which  they  had  brought  along  from  Egypt  (Jos., 


1  I.  Kings,  X,  5  ff.;  IV.  Kings,  II,  3  ff.;  IV,  38. 

2  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  s.  v.,  Prophecy. 


THE  HEBREWS.  IOQ 

XVIII,  4  ff.).  Music,  especially  liturgical  music,  in  which  all 
present  at  the  divine  services  joined,  was  a  general  accomplish- 
ment. (Ps.  67,  26  ff.,  and  elsewhere.) 

A  system  of  higher  education  was  organized  only  after  the 
Exile.  The  reason  was  the  same  as  with  the  Persians:  the  need 
of  safeguarding  what  remained  of  the  nation's  intellectual  prop- 
erty and  of  restoring  what  was  destroyed.  In  the  day  of  trial 
the  Law  alone  had  saved  the  nation  from  complete  destruction, 
and  with  the  restoration  of  peace  came  a  zeal  for  its  conscien- 
tious observance.  This  observance,  however,  necessitated  a  thor- 
ough study  of  the  Law,  and  such  a  study  was  the  chief  duty  of 
the  Sopherim,  whose  first  representative  was  Esra  (about  450 
B.  C.).  The  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus,  written  in  the  Alexandrian 
Period,  speaks  of  the  studies  of  the  scribe,  or  doctor  of  the  Law, 
who  was  at  that  time  the  representative  of  a  social  class  (chap- 
ter XXXVIII,  2<;  ff.):  "The  wisdom  of  a  scribe  cometh  by  his 
time  of  leisure;  and  he  that  is  less  in  action,  shall  receive  wis- 
dom. With  what  wisdom  shall  he  be  furnished  that  holdeth 
the  plough  and  that  glorieth  in  the  goad,  that  driveth  the  oxen 
therewith  and  is  occupied  in  their  labors? ...  He  shall  give  his 
mind  to  turn  up  furrows,  and  his  care  is  to  give  the  kine  fodder. 
So  every  craftsman  and  workmaster  that  laboreth  day  and 
night,  he  who  maketh  graven  seals,  and  by  his  continual  dili- 
gence varieth  the  figure:  he  shall  give  his  mind  to  the  resem- 
blance of  the  picture,  and  by  his  watching  shall  finish  the  work... 
The  wise  man  will  seek  out  the  wisdom  of  all  the  ancients,  and 
he  will  be  occupied  in  the  prophets.  He  will  keep  the  sayings 
of  renowned  men,  and  will  enter  withal  into  the  subtleties  of 
parables.  He  will  search  out  the  hidden  meanings  of  proverbs, 
and  will  be  conversant  in  the  secrets  of  parables. "  But  that 
the  knowledge  of  the  doctor  of  the  Law  is  not  confined  to  Scrip- 
ture, is  evident  from  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  dating  from  about  the 
same  time,  where  the  scribe  (ch.  VII,  18-21)  is  said  to  be  versed 
in  "the  beginning  and  ending  and  midst  of  the  times,  the  alter- 
ations of  their  courses  and  the  changes  of  the  seasons,  the  rev- 
olutions of  the  year  and  the  dispositions  of  the  stars,  the  natures 
of  living  creatures  and  rage  of  wild  beasts,  the  force  of  winds 
and  reasonings  of  men,  the  diversities  of  plants  and  the  virtues 
of  roots;  and  all  such  things  as  are  hid  and  not  foreseen,  I  have 
learned,  for  wisdom,  which  is  the  worker  of  all  things,  taught 
me."  Thus  the  way  was  open  for  the  development  of  theology 
and  its  auxiliary  sciences,  which  now  grew  up  about  Scripture 


I  IO  ORIENTAL   EDUCATION. 

as  their  centre,  and  which  were  later  collected  in  the  Mischna 
and  the  Talmud. 

3.  The  changed  conditions  after  the  Exile  that  led  to  im- 
provements in  the  higher  schools,  necessitated  a  corresponding 
improvement  in  the  schools -of  the  masses.  The  language  of 
Scripture  was  no  longer  the  language  of  the  people,  and  knowl- 
edge could  be  handed  down  only  through  systematic  instruction 
in  the  home  and  the  school.  The  highpriest  Joshua  ben  Gamla 
introduced,  about  67  of  the  Christian  era,  a  system  of  elemen- 
tary schools;  he  ordained  that  each  town,  and  even  each  village, 
should  open  an  elementary  school  for  children.  Moses  Maimo- 
nides  says  of  the  Jews  of  the  Middle  Ages  that  they  everywhere 
employed  teachers  of  boys,  and  that  they  would  curse  the  town 
where  no  such  instruction  was  given,  or,  if  that  availed  not, 
even  destroy  it,  "because  the  world  existed  solely  by  the  breath 
of  school  boys."  The  deep  interest  in  studies  gave  rise  to  the 
belief  that  a  system  of  schools  was  described  in  the  Bible,  and 
that  the  Jewish  system  of  education  dated,  therefore,  from  the 
earliest  times.  To  the  rabbis  the  patriarchs  appeared  as  the 
founders  of  academies;  and  the  tribe  of  Simeon  they  regarded 
as  the  tribe  of  teachers  and  as  enjoying,  in  consequence,  a  dig- 
nity fully  equal  to  that  of  the  tribe  Levi,  etc.  Of  the  methods 
of  teaching,  that  of  interpretation  or  exegesis  was  cultivated 
most.  The  need  of  harmonizing  different  interpretations  gave 
rise  to  the  disputation,  which  is  a  method  of  teaching  peculiar 
to  the  Jews.  Language  teaching,  however,  did  not  develop  be- 
yond the  primitive  stage;  and  the  first  systematic  study  of 
Hebrew  gram-mar  was  made  as  late  as  the  nth  century  by 
Rabbi  Jona,  who  followed  the  methods  of  Arabian  grammarians. 

The  old  method,  still  in  vogue  to-day,  for  introducing  the 
child  to  the  language  of  the  Thora,  consists  in  having  the  teacher 
first  speak  the  words  and  sentences  of  the  text,  next  translate 
them,  and  finally  let  the  pupil  memorize  all.  Thus  the  text 
is  read,  explained,  and  memorized  without  one  single  word  of 
grammatical  analysis.2  This  method  was  followed  by  the  He- 
brew teachers  of  Reuchlin,  Trotzendorf,  and  A.  H.  Francke;  and 
Esra  Ezardi,  Francke's  teacher,  defended  it  as  embodying  the 
first  principle  of  language  instruction:  " Lege  biblia^  relege  biblia^ 
repete  biblia."  Wolfgang  Ratke  and  others  adopted  it  in  the 
iyth  century  for  the  teaching  of  the  classical  languages,  and  it 


1  Schwarz,  Erziehungs/ehre,  Leipzig,  1829,  I,  I,  p.  204. 

2  Jost,  Brzoska's  Zentra'bibliothek,  1839,  Feb.  issue,  pp.  49  ff. 


CHINA.  Ill 

was  useful  in  offsetting  the  evil  effects  of  the  one-sided  gram- 
matical method. 

The  Jews  of  later  days  have  repeatedly  rendered  special 
services  to  Western  education  by  being  the  intermediaries  in 
transmitting  certain  educational  elements  from  the  East.  In 
the  Middle  Ages  they  played  an  important  role  as  the  connect- 
ing link  between  Moslemin  and  Christians;  to  the  latter  their 
philosophical  and  medical  works  were  particularly  helpful;  and 
it  is  owing  principally  to  the  Jews,  that  the  oriental  tales  and 
legends  have  become  so  widely  known  in  the  West.1  In  the 
Renaissance  the  rabbis  were  in  great  demand  for  teaching  He- 
brew and  other  oriental  languages,  and  the  pantheism  of  the 
Kabbalah  was  a  deep  influence  in  the  philosophy  of  the  age. 
Jewish  rationalists  were  an  important  factor  in  popularizing  the 
philosophy  of  the  i8th  century.  However,  at  the  present  time 
the  Jewish  elements  are  assimilating  more  and  more  with  west- 
ern culture.  The  specific  features  of  Jewish  education  are  fast 
disappearing,  and  represent,  in  fact,  a  mere  remnant  of  Hebrew 
culture,  although  still  an  interesting  object  of  study.  "With 
no  class  of  people  will  you  find  among  the  savants  so  few  books 
and  among  the  lower  orders  so  many  books,  as  among  those 
Jewish  elements  of  our  population  that  have  remained  faithful 
to  the  ancient  ideals  of  their  race.  Nowhere  else  will  you  find 
anybody  taking  so  much  delight  in  a  book  as  among  the  Jews, 
and  often,  after  having  driven  the  most  sordid  of  bargains, 
they  appear  to  refresh  their  minds  by  recurring  in  their  con- 
versation ever  and  anon  to  the  sublimest  of  subjects.  You  will 
frequently  find  the  wretched  dealer  in  second-hand  goods,  or 
the  trader  in  cattle,  bending  of  a  Sabbath,  or  of  a  winter's  eve- 
ning, over  old  and  venerable  tomes,  studying  the  most  abstruse 
casuistry,  or  revelling  in  Hebrew  history  or  poetry,  or  writing 
for  publication. " 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
China. 

i.  Chinese  education  has  been  influenced  very  little  by  the 
peoples  we  have  been  dealing  with,  and  hence  it  differs  essen- 
tially from  their  educational  systems.  The  education  of  China 

1  Benfey,  Pantschatranta,  I,  pp.  10,  26  ff. 

2  Jost,  1.  c. 


112  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION. 

lacks  the  religious  foundation.  The  Chinese  mind  is  fixed  upon 
the  things  of  this  world  and  does  not  connect  them  with  a  higher 
order.  The  fine  arts,  as  finding  their  highest  inspiration  in  re- 
ligion, are  neglected,  while  the  mechanical  arts  attained  early  a 
high  degree  of  excellence.  The  moral  life  lacks  the  ennobling 
and  sanctifying  element  that  might  raise  it  above  the  trivial  and 
insipid.  Science  ranges  over  broad  and  varied  fields,  but  does 
so  at  the  expense  necessarily  of  depth,  the  natural  result  of  the 
absence  of  the  speculative  element.  "The  life  of  the  Chinese  is 
workaday  and  profane;  the  State  takes  the  place  of  the  Church; 
the  laity  has  crowded  out  the  clergy;  the  workday  supersedes 
the  holyday;  memorial  halls  take  the  place  of  temples  and 
shrines. "  The  canonical  or  classical  books,  which  are  the  basis 
of  Chinese  education,  are  not  regarded  as  religious  or  sacred. 
They  are  not  an  inheritance,  guarded  by  priests,  but  mere  com- 
pilations of  current  traditions  made  for  moral  and  educational 
purposes  by  Confucius,  "the  King  of  Teachers"  (about  550 
B.  C.).  "To  the  King,  edited  by  Confucius,  the  model  of  lit- 
erary form,  the  acme  of  philosophic  wisdom,  is  largely  due  that 
extraordinary  stability  of  Chinese  thought  and  institutions  which 
is  the  wonder  of  the  world."  The  Five  Classics  of  Confucius 
are:  Y-king,  the  book  of  changes,  64  figures,  unintelligible 
even  at  the  time  of  their  first  publication,  which  probably 
signify  some  cosmological  facts;  She-king,  the  book  of  odes,  a 
collection  of  311  moral,  political,  and  lyrical  poems;  Shao-king, 
the  book  of  history;  Li-ki,  the  book  of  rites;  and  Ch'un-ts'ew, 
Spring  and  Autumn,  the  last-named  being  the  only  one  claiming 
Confucius  as  the  actual  author.  To  the  King  must  be  added 
the  Four  Books:  Lun  Lii,  or  Analects  of  Confucius,  his  views 
and  maxims  retailed  by  his  disciples;  the  Book  of  Mencius\  Ta 
Hsueh,  or  Great  Learning;  and  Chung  Yung,  or  Doctrine  of  the 
Mean,  a  short  treatise  enlarging  upon  Confucius'  teaching  about 
conduct,  and  ascribed  to  his  grandson  K'ung  Chi.  These  classics 
occasioned  innumerable  commentaries  and  paraphrases,  and  the 
whole  vast  field  of  Chinese  literature,  history,  didactic  works, 
and  poetry,  is  indirectly  connected  with  them.  The  polyhistor 
Chu  Hsi  (1130-1200)  is  important  in  the  history  of  education  for 
having  compiled  in  works,  large  and  small,  all  that  he  thought 
worthy  of  preservation.  For  the  instruction. of  the  young  he 
compiled  the  encyclopedia  Siao-hio,  i.  e.,  The  Small  Study.2  No 

1  Adolf  Wuttke,  Geschichte  des  Heidentums,  Breslau,  1853,  II,  p.  68. 

2  Heinrich   Wuttke,   Geschichte  der  Schrift  und  des   Schrifttums,   Leipzig, 

i872>  P-  353- 


CHIN-A.  113 

science  of  language  developed  in  connection  with  the  study  of 
these  early  writings.  The  Chinese  are  indifferent  to  the  spoken 
word,  for  they  regard  it  as  the  mere  expression  of  the  written 
characters,  which  may  be  read  according  to  different  dialects ^ 
and  thus  the  study  of  grammar  dwindles  down  to  an  explanation 
of  the  pictured  symbols.1  The  Chinese  never  lacked  the  ele- 
ments of  the  mathematical  sciences:  in  the  nth  century  B.  C. 
arithmetic  and  the  calendar  were  widely  known,  maps  of  the 
empire  were  drawn  on  vases,  and  tables  of  statistics  posted  in 
public  places.  But  it  was  only  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  they 
received  of  the  Arabians  the  rudiments  of  astronomy  and  geom- 
etry and  of  the  Hindus  their  system  of  notation.2  The  Chinese 
esteem  music  for  its  ennobling  effects  on  the  young:  its  function 
is  to  produce  the  harmony  of  souls,  to  be  the  step  leading  to 
wisdom,  and  to  prove  a  type  of  the  order  that  ought  to  prevail 
in  a  well-organized  community.  Yet  music  has  not  developed 
in  China,  neither  on  its  sesthetical  nor  its  theoretical  side,  and 
the  method  of  writing  music  the  Chinese  learned  only  of  Chris- 
tian missionaries. 

2.  The  King,  seven  small  volumes  with  many  commentaries, 
are  the  chief  subject  in  higher  education.  The  pupils  copy  the 
text  and  try  to  fix  in  their  memory  and  imagination  the  char- 
acters peculiar  to  the  book  studied.  The  more  advanced  pupils 
analyze  the  text,  and  practice  the  use  of  lists  of  pictured  words. 
The  most  important  work,  however,  is  the  writing  of  compo- 
sitions, for  which  the  subjects  are  taken  either  from  the  classics 
or  from  encyclopedias.3  Some  attention  is  also  given  to  the 
writing  of  verses  and  to  the  acquiring  of  a  business  style.  De- 
spite the  dryness  and  severity  of  the  instruction — the  picture  of 
a  hand  holding  a  rod  represents  the  word  kiao  to  teach — the 
pupils  leave  school  with  a  taste  for  literature.  A  man  of  edu- 
cation will  invariably  have  a  library  of  scientific  and  literary 
works,  and  will  also  visit  the  public  library  quite  frequently, 
besides  reading  his  magazines  and  newspapers  at  home. 

Elementary  instruction  is,  like  the  higher  education,  chiefly 
a  matter  of  memory  and  of  the  skillful  use  of  the  brush-pen. 
It  deals,  however,  only  with  the  common  characters,  the  knowl- 
edge of  which  does  not  yet  fit  a  person  to  read  the  higher  liter- 
ature. The  most  widely  used  elementary  textbook  is  the  San- 


1  Ibid.,  pp.  320  ff.,  402  ff. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  277,  364  ff. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  388. 


8 


114  ORIENTAL   EDUCATION. 

tse-kingy  which  was  written  in  the  ijth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  by  the  teacher  Wang-po-heu.  It  contains  1068  word-pic- 
tures in  groups  of  three,  joined  by  rimes,  and  touches  upon  all 
that  is  thought  most  necessary  for  life.  Many  books  have  been 
written  to  explain  its  contents  and  to  suggest  the  best  methods 
for  imparting  its  material  to  children.1  The  children's  schooling 
begins  at  the  age  of  five  or  six.  Several  years  are  spent  first  in 
learning  to  sketch  roughly  the  pictures  of  words  and  then  in 
making  more  exact  drawings  of  them;  before  the  age  of  fourteen 
to  sixteen,'  pupils  can  rarely  read  and  write.2 

•The  West  has  taken  a  new  interest  in  Chinese  encyclopedias 
since  the  publication,  in  1905,  of  the  great  encyclopedia  in 
French  and  Chinese,  comprising  twelve  volumes  and  edited  by 
the  Jesuit  Wieger.  This  monumental  work,  honored  with  the 
grand  prize  of  the  Paris  Academic  des  inscriptions  et  belles-lettres ', 
comprises  Chinese  grammar,  literary  as  well  as  colloquial,  dia- 
logues, orations,  ethics,  philosophy,  history  up  to  the  date 
of  publication,  written  characters,  etymology,  dictionary,  etc. 
40,000  letters  had  to  be  cast  for  the  printing  of  the  encyclopedia, 
and  the  work  was  done  by  Chinese  under  the  direction  of  lay- 
brothers. 

The  Chinese  newspapers  have  had  a  long  history.  The 
Peking  Gazette  (Tsching-pao,  News  of  the  Capital)  is  said  to  have 
been  founded  911  B.  C.;  it  appeared  in  print  since  1351,  has 
been  issued  daily  since  1800,  and  is  now  published  three  times 
a  day;  each  issue  appearing,  according  to  the  time  of  day,  on 
yellow,  white,  or  green  paper. 

1  Neumann,  who  edited  it  along  with  a  translation  and  commentary  (Mu- 
nich, 1836),  was  the  first  to  bring  this  textbook  to  the  knowledge  of  the  West. 
The  following  is  a  summary  of  its  contents:  importance  of  education,  examples 
of  good  children,   numbers,   the   three   fundamental   entities   (heaven,   earth, 
man),   the  three  duties   (patriotism,  piety,  conjugal   love),  the  four  seasons, 
the  four  cardinal  points,  the  five  elements  (water,  fire,  wood,  metal,  earth), 
the  five  virtues  (humanity,  justice,  good  taste,  wisdom,  fidelity),  the  six  kinds 
of  grain,  the  six  domestic  animals,  the  seven  passions  (joy,  anger,  aversion, 
fear,  love,  hatred,  lust),  the  eight  tones,  the  nine  generations  from  the  great- 
great-grandfather  to  the  great-great-grandchild,  the  ten  moral  ties  (between 
father  and  son,  between  the  married,  between  brothers,  king  and  people,  old 
and  young,  and  friends).     This  is  followed  by  a  list  of  the  canonical  books, 
a  survey  of  the  country's  history,  admonitions  to  industry,  and  examples  of 
industry.     The  popularity  of  this  primer  has  recently  induced  Christian  mis- 
sionaries to  preserve  its  form  while  Christianizing  its  content,  and  the  attempt 
is  reported  to  have  proved  very  successful. 

2  H.  Wuttke,  1.  c.,  pp.  386  ff. 


CHINA.  115 

3.  The  State  supervised  and  assisted  the  schools  in  the  earli- 
est times.  The  Emperor  Yao,  the  Chinese  Alfred  (2205-2198 
B.  C.),  divided  the  government  lands,  and  apportioned  off  no 
small  part  of  them  for  school  purposes.1  In  1097  B.  C.  an  im- 
perial edict  of  the  Emperor  Tscheu  decreed  the  establishment 
of  large  and  small  schools  throughout  the  country.2  Till  750 
B.  C.  the  schools  of  the  country  were  state  institutions.  The 
school  of  the  court,  the  highest  in  rank,  had  its  own 'teachers; 
but  in  the  provinces  the  teaching  was  committed  to  state  offi- 
cials, regardless  of  their  age  or  experience.3  The  schools'  were 
an  integral  part  of  the  imperial  police  system.  But  the  schools 
of  modern  China  are  private,  and  by  supervising  the  examina- 
tions the  State  provides  both  for  the  uniformity  and  the  spread- 
ing of,  knowledge.  Because  the  examinations  determine  the 
individual's  social  and  political  rank,  the  interest  in  education 
is  intense  and  general.  Every  village  boasts  a  school,  and  evening 
and  night  schools  are  numerous  in  all  towns.4  To  be  admitted  to 
society  or  to  be  classed  among  the  men  of  education,  one  must 
pass  the  first  examination,  which  consists  in  writing  several 
compositions  on  subjects  taken  generally  from  the  King;  three 
prose  compositions  and  one  poem  must  be  written  on  four  texts 
taken  from  the  classics.  It  is  estimated  that  no  more  than  five 
per  cent  of  the  candidates  pass  this  examination,  and,  though 
their  number  cannot  be  stated  exactly,  Chinese  authorities  con- 
fess it  to  be  a  full  million.  To  ensure  the  possession  of  the  title  ob- 
tained by  this  examination,  the  holder  must  every  three  years  pass 
a  similar  test.  The  next  higher  examination  lasts  a  full  month 
and  admits  the  candidate  to  a  public  office.  The  third  exami- 
nation is  taken  to  obtain  the  title  of  savant  and  to  be  eligible  to 
the  highest  state  positions;  it  lasts  thirteen  days,  consists  in 
writing  compositions  in  elegant  style,  and  can  be  taken  only  in 
the  capital  of  the  country.  The  savants  desiring  to  be  members 
of  the  Peking  Academy  of  Sciences  (founded  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury of  the  Christian  era)  must  pass  a  final  examination  in  the 
imperial  palace;  this  examination  is  not  confined,  as  the  others, 
to  certain  periods  of  time.5 


1  Plath,    Ueber  Schuls,    Unterricht  und  Erziehung  bei  den  alien   Chinesen^ 
Munich,  1868,  p.  13. 

2  H.  Wuttke,  1.  c.,  p.  278. 

3  Plath,  1.  c.,  p.  56. 

4  Fr.  Muller,  Ethnographic,  1873,  p.  392. 

5  Plath,  1.  c.,  p.  6. 


Il6  ORIENTAL   EDUCATION. 

By  this  system  education  and  scholarship  obtain  a  politico- 
economical  importance;  knowledge  is  a  social  power,  yea,  an 
attribute  of  public  power.  Yet  the  encyclopedic  character  of 
knowledge  and  the  value  of  formal  accomplishments  are  stressed 
equally  in  all  the  various  examinations.  It  is  not  professional 
knowledge  that  fits  a  man  for  public  office,  but  his  knowledge  of 
language,  and  the  savant  differs  from  the  man  of  general  edu- 
cation, not  in  possessing  a  different  knowledge,  but  solely  in  the 
greater  volume  of  his  learning.  The  subject-matter  of  elemen- 
tary and  higher  education  is  practically  identical.  It  is,  then, 
but  natural  that  in  China  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  spreading  it.  It  is  significant  that  the  sym- 
bol for  one  of  the  terms  for  "teaching"  (hoei}  combines  the 
signs  for  "word"  and  for  "everyman,"  thus  expressing  that  to 
teach  is  "to  transmit  words  for  everyman."  Similarly,  the 
terms  for  the  one  who  knows  and  for  the  one  who  teaches,  play, 
as  in  the  English  "master,"  into  each  other.1  The  Chinese 
proverbs:  "To  teach  and  to  learn  imply  a  mutual  growth," 
"Teaching  is  half  learning,"  also  voice  the  idea  that  the  re- 
ceiving of  an  intellectual  content  connotes  that  it  will  be  trans- 
mitted to  others. 

Chinese  institutions  and  writings  embody  the  view  that 
teaching  and  learning  must  be  moral  in  aim.  In  the  Li-ki, 
(The  Mirror  of  Morality},  we  read,  "The  righteous  scholar 
should  look  upon  a  righteous  heart  as  his  chief  treasure;  honesty 
should  be  his  best  possession;  and  the  enriching  of  his  mind 
should  be  his  profession."  Chu  Hsi,  describing  the  difference 
between  the  two  grades  of  education,  says,  "The  lower  educa- 
tion teaches  moral  living  and  the  ways  and  means  of  making 
moral  progress.  But  it  is  only  the  higher  education  that  gives 
a  clear  insight  into  the  foundations  of  morality;  it  is  the  highest 
perfection  of  all  norms  and  the  full  development  of  the  mind; 
it  teaches  why  we  are  enjoined  to  lead  a  moral  life  and  to  make 
progress  on  the  path  of  virtue. " 

The  educational  system  of  China  has  frequently  been  over- 
estimated. Its  admirers  praised  the  Chinese  for  recruiting  the 
state  officials  from  the  ranks  of  scholars;  but  they  failed  to  note 
that  by  this  very  privilege  the  scholar  became  a  mere  official. 
They  rejoiced  that  writers  were  admitted  to  high  places;  but 

1  Ibid.,  p.  26. 

2  Heinrich  Wuttke;  I.e.,  p.  391. 

3  Adolf  Wuttke,  I.e.,  II,  p.  198. 


CHINA. 


they  overlooked  that  thus  the  entire  field  of  writing  and  litera- 
ture was  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  state  functionary.  While 
admiring  the  industry  of  the  Chinese,  they  did  not  note  how 
valueless  is  the  matter  thrashed  out  by  this  ceaseless  activity. 
The  Chinese  were  congratulated  upon  the  fact  that  their  system 
of  education  precludes  all  friction  between  Church  and  State, 
between  religious  and  secular  education.  But  this  advantage 
was  secured  at  too  dear  a  price,  for  it  involved  the  sacrifice  of 
high  ideals,  as  is  evident  from  the  restless  and  joyless  drudgery 
of  the  people. 


III. 

GREEK  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Content  of  Greek  Education. 

i.  The  difference  between  the  East  and  Greece  is  too  strik- 
ing to  have  escaped  the  Greek  philosophers,  and  they  have, 
indeed,  described  very  clearly  the  contrast  between  the  two 
civilizations.  They  prefer  their  own  countrymen  for  all  that 
pertains  to  the  activities  of  the  State  and  public  life.  For  the 
Greek,  so  they  contend,  was  by  nature,  by  his  inherent  energy 
and  the  consciousness  of  his  powers,  well  qualified  to  enjoy  the 
boon  of  liberty,  whereas  the  Orientals,  lacking  in  political  sagac- 
ity, had  sunk  into  slavery.1  Still  they  are  broadminded  enough 
to  pay  generous  tribute  to  the  knowledge  and  learning  of  the 
East,  which,  dating  from  the  earliest  times,  continued  to  grow 
about  a  never-changing  core,  and  was  guarded  as  a  sacred  treas- 
ure and  transmitted  in  an  unbroken  line  to  successive  genera- 
tions. Occasionally,  the  Greek  philosophers  even  express  the 
wish  that  their  own  people,  alert  and  active  though  they  were, 
might  leave  off  from  running  after  the  novel  and  cling  to  some 
similar  foundation  of  culture.2 

Though  a  former  age  might,  in  its  idolizing  of  the  Greek 
spirit,  have  refused  to  admit  Hamitic  or  Semitic  influences  in 
Greek  education,  we  must  at  the  present  time,  in  the  light  of 
well-known  facts,  acknowledge  that  the  East  played  a  large  role 
in  the  development  of  Greek  learning  and  civilization.  It  is 
to-day  an  established  fact  that  the  glory  of  the  Greek  learning 
at  Alexandria  was  the  result,  at  least  in  part,  of  the  treasures 
collected  there  by  the  Egyptians,  and  that  the  Egyptians  had 
in  still  earlier  times  been  the  teachers  of  the  Greeks  in  the  math- 
ematical and  technical  sciences.  It  is  equally  certain  that  forms 
of  worship,  myths,  fables,  tales,  songs,  and  wise  sayings,  were 

1  Her.,  VII,  101-105  and  elsewhere;  Arist.,  Pol.,  VII,  6,  p.   1327;  Her., 

II,  4,  77,  79  ff- 

2  Plato,  Tim.,  p.  22  (see  supra  p.  89);  I.  Ale.,  p.  I2i ;  Legg.,  VII,  pp.  798  ff.; 
Diod.,  II,  29  (see  supra  p.  104). 

118 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  II  9 

imported  into  Greece  from  the  East,  and  that  it  was  the  Sem- 
ites who  in  pre-Homeric  times  taught  the  art  of  writing  to  the 
Greeks.  Eduard  Roth  has  collected  the  oriental  influences  of 
the  different  periods  and  presents  them  as  links  of  a  chain;  he 
has  demonstrated  that  Greek  culture  is  based  on  oriental,  and 
particularly  Egyptian,  elements.1  Otto  Gruppe  takes  a  similar 
view  in  his  great,  if  incomplete,  work,2  and  adduces  a  wealth  of 
material  to  prove  his  contention,  though  his  erratic  conception 
of  the  nature  of  religion  makes  many  readers  doubt  some  of  his 
conclusions.  These  researches  have  called  attention  to  another 
factor,  already  noted  by  Friedrich  Creuzer,3  but  later  lost  sight 
of,  viz.,  pre-Homeric  theology,  which  is  unmistakably  similar  to 
oriental  beliefs,  and  which  is  a  cultural  element  preserved  by 
the  priests,  and  at  the  same  time,  because  it  cannot  be  entirely 
drawn  from  foreign  sources,  native  to  Greek  soil. 

In  this  pre-Homeric  theology  we  must  look  for  the  begin- 
nings of  Greek  intellectual  life  and,  therefore,  also  for  the  first 
sources  of  Greek  education.  The  Appolonian  circle  of  beliefs, 
to  which  the  worship  of  the  Muses  belonged,  and  from  which 
the  epic  and  the  lyric  sprang,  represent  one  side  of  these  priestly 
teachings,  while  the  mysteries,  which  are  the  source  of  the 
occult  ritual  and  the  drama,  are  their  other  side. 

The  service  of  the  Muses — which  term  later  designated  the 
devotion  to  the  arts  and  sciences — was  originally  a  form  of 
religious  worship  practiced  by  priests.  The  Muses  had  bestowed 
not  only  the  arts  of  singing  and  music,  but  (as  is  apparent  from 
the  names  of  some  of  them:  Mnemosyne,  Clio,  Urania,  Poly- 
mathia)  the  knowledge  of  early  times,  the  remembrance  of  glo- 
rious deeds,  the  knowledge  of  the  cosmic  phenomena — the  learn- 
ing, in  fact,  of  all  kinds  was  recognized  as  the  gift  of  the  Muses. 
Plato  calls  Calliope  and  Urania  the  eldest  of  the  Muses,  which 
is  the  same  as  saying  that  the  knowledge  of  the  past  and  of  the 
heavens  antedates  all  other  sciences.4  Orpheus  was  celebrated 
not  only  for  having  brought  to  men  the  charm  of  song,  but 
also  for  having  disclosed  the  secrets  of  nature  and  for  having 
taught  men  the  art  of  healing.  Musaeus  is  said  to  have  written 


1  E.  Roth,  Geschichte  unserer  abendlandischen  Philosophic,  Mannheim,  1862, 
particularly  Vol.  II,  pp.  278  ff.,  Ill,  I  ff.,  71  ff. 

2  O.  Gruppe,  Die  griechischen  Kulte  und  Mythen  in  ihren  Beziehungen  zu 
den  orientalischen  Religionen,  Vol.  I,  Leipzig,  1887. 

3  Fr.   Creuzer,   Symbolik  und  My  t ho  logic  der  alien   Volker,   besonders  der 
Griechen,  2nd  ed.,  I-IV,  Leipzig,  1819. 


4  Plato,  Phted.,  p.  259  d. 


I2O  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

a  book  on  astronomy,  and  Linos'  poetry  dealt  with  astronomy 
and  natural  history.1  The  hymns  and  prayers  of  these  poet- 
priests  were  preserved  even  at  a  later  day  in  shrines  and  tem- 
ples, e.  g.,  in  Delos.  From  these  hymns  and  prayers  the  later 
poetry  derived  "the  first  notions  concerning  the  structure  of 
the  world,  the  dominions  of  the  Olympian  gods  and  the  Titans, 
the  established  epithets  which  are  applied  to  the  gods,  without 
reference  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  they  ap- 
pear, and  which  often  disagree  with  the  rest  of  the  epic  mythol- 
ogy."  But  the  ideas  current  among  these  Pierian  bards  as- 
sumed no  sufficiently  definite  shape  to  prove  the  foundation  of 
a  priestly  education;  it  was  left  to  epic  poetry  to  become  the 
standard  for  all  later  time. 

2.  Among  the  epic  poets  Homer  held  undisputed  sway,  and 
the  Greeks  regarded  him  as  the  father  of  their  whole  intellectual 
life.  Common  opinion  had  it  that  he  had,  in  union  with  Hesiod, 
"fixed  the  genealogical  table  of  the  gods,  had  given  them  their 
names,  their  character,  and  had  determined  the  forms  of  wor- 
ship. "  Homer  was  the  teacher  of  all  poets  that  came  after 
him:  their  works  were  but  "crumbs  from  his  sumptuous  ban- 
quet." He  was  for  all  writings  "the  model  and  the  source, 
even  as  the  ocean  is  the  source  for  all  streams  and  springs. " 
He  was  the  eternal  fountain-head  of  the  national  spirit,  whence 
the  Greeks  could  ever  draw  new  strength  for  their  struggle 
with  the  forces  of  barbarism.6  His  poetry  was  considered  the 
inexhaustible  source  of  ideas,  of  views  of  life  and  nature,  and 
even  of  scientific  knowledge  and  of  philosophical  principles:7 
"He  is  the  source  of  all  culture  and  all  science  that  has  entered 


1  Horace,  Ars  Poet.,  391 ;  Diog.  Laert.,  Procem.,  §§  3  and  4. 

2  K.  O.  Miiller  and  J.  W.  Donaldson,  History  of  the  Literature  of  Ancient 
Greece,  London,  i8<;8,  p.  39. 

3  Her.,  II,  53. 

4  Plato,  Rep.,  X,  p.  585;  Athen.,  VIII,  49,  where  Aeschylus  calls  his  tragedy 

Tffjui\ri  TWV  'Oujpov  ncyd\uv  deiirvov. 

5  Quintilian,  X,  i  in. 

6  Isocrates,  Paneg.,  159. 

7  Though  Plato  is  opposed  to  the  Homeric  worldview,  he  does  not  hesitate 
to  quote  quite  freely  from  Homer's  verses,  which    he  calls   ^JTIJ  icarA  6c6v  rus 
tlprj/j^va  KO.I  Kard.  <j>foiv     (Legg.,  Ill,   p.  682).     Alkidamas  calls  the  Odyssey   a 
beautiful  mirror  of  human  life:  icoXAv  dvOpuirtvov  ptov  K&dovrpov  (Arist.,   Rhetor., 
Ill,  3).     The  Sophists  were  eager  to  prove  Homer  the  father  of  their  system 
(Plat.,  Pro/.,  p.  316).      Krates    of   Mallos    interprets    all  the  learning  of  the 
Alexandrian  age  into  the  poet  (Strab.,  Ill,  p.  157). 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  121 

into  human  life."  "He  was  the  educator  of  Greece  and  laid 
down  the  norms  for  the  inner  and  outer  forms  of  life.  " 

The  canon,  then,  of  Greek  education  is  not  the  sacred  texts 
of  priests,  but  the  creations  of  poetic  genius.  At  the  bottom 
of  this  poetry  there  was  no  set  of  teachings  that  would  attach 
the  mind  to  a  fixed  content,  but  the  pictures  of  the  nation's 
great  achievements,  which  ennobled  the  young  as  well  by  the 
easily  understood  meaning  as  by  the  perfection  of  form.  To 
behold  this  glorious  panorama,  to  understand  it,  to  enjoy  it, 
was  not  reserved  to  one  privileged  caste  which  would  share 
only  in  a  small  measure  its  knowledge  with  the  masses.  No, 
it  was  granted  to  each  and  everyone  of  the  Greeks  to  learn  of 
Achilles'  wrath  and  the  wanderings  of  Ulysses,  to  train  his  ear 
with  the  hexameter's  rythmic  flow,  to  store  his  fancy  with  the 
splendid  pictures  of  the  epic,  and  to  enrich  his  mind  and  heart 
with  the  wisdom  of  the  father  of  poets.  All  poetic  and  artistic 
activity  of  the  Greeks  followed  in  the  wake  of  Homer,  and,  as 
his  poetry  appealed  to  the  whole  people,  it  was  a  thing  of  beauty 
that  enriched  in  many  ways  the  national  and  public  life. 

3.  To  make  Homer's  poetry  accessible  to  all  was  one  of  the 
chief  objects  of  the  liberal  education  (musische  Eildung)  of  the 
Greeks,  for  the  latter  tended  to  make  the  individual  apprecia- 
tive and  receptive  of  the  intellectual  treasures  belonging  to  the 
whole  nation.  It  comprised  the  teaching  of  reading  and  writ- 
ing, the  reading  and  memorizing  ot  texts,  and  vocal  and  instru- 
mental music.  The  elements  of  grammar  were  taught  by  the 
ypa/A/AaTicrr^s,  who  made  use  of  various  helps.  One  such  help 
was  the  grammar  play  written  by  Kallias,  a  writer  of  come- 
dies of  about  400  B.C.,  in  which  the  24  letters  of  the  Ionic  al- 
phabet, which  was  then  to  be  introduced,  appeared  on  the 
stage  in  due  order.  Combinations  of  the  different  letters  were 
spoken  and  sung.  The  play  was  written  in  verse,  and  followed 
in  all  its  details  (prologue,  chorus,  etc.)  the  plan  of  the  classical 
tragedy.3  In  the  Alexandrian  age  grammar  was  taught  in  con- 
nection with  the  elementary  instruction.  Three  parts  of  speech 
were  recognized:  noun,  verb,  and  conjunction  (ovoftara,  ptj- 
/u,ara,  <rwo€cr/uoi)-  The  pupils  were  taught  the  phonetic  changes 
(crvo-roXcu,  e/cTGuretg,  shortening  and  lengthening);  accents,  and 
the  categories  of  inflection  (yeVq,  genera,  Trrtucret?,  casus, 


1  Dion.  Hal.,  ad  Cn.  Pomp.,  §  13. 

Plato,  Rep.,  X,  p.  606:    rrjv  'EXXdSa  vfiralSevKev  otiro*  6  iroiifTfy  K.   r.   X. 
3  For  the  most  detailed  account  see  Grassberger,  Erziehung  und  Unterricht 
im  klassischen  Altertum,  Part  II,  Wiirzburg,  1875,  pp.  263  ff. 


122  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

numeri,  ey/cAwm?,  modi).1  The  matter  read,  or  memorized,  as 
well  as  the  texts  of  songs  differed  in  the  different  parts  of  Greece; 
the  Cretes  memorized  their  laws  set  to  music;  the  Arcadians 
memorized  hymns;  and  the  Athenians,  both  laws  and  hymns.2 
The  fables  of  Aesop  were  read  everywhere:  it  was  proverbial  to 
say  of  an  uneducated  man,  "he  has  not  worn  Aesop  down  on, his 
shoes. "  Homer  was  likewise  read  in  all  schools,  and  it  would 
seem  that  anthologies  were  also  in  use;  at  least  the  model  col- 
lection made  by  Plato  (Legg.,  VII,  p.  810)  seems  to  presuppose 
an  earlier  collection  of  the  kind.  It  was  a  common  practice  in 
the  golden  age  of  Greek  literature  to  interpret  what  had  been 
read,  to  declaim  select  passages,  to  repeat  the  contents,  and  so 
forth.  But  in  the  Alexandrian  age  there  was  a  distinction  made 
between  the  aesthetical  appreciation  and  the  interpretation  of 
the  content.  The  aesthetical  *or  rhetorical  interpretation  occa- 
sioned imitations  of  the  style,  the  writings  of  chrias,  sketches 
of  characters  and  of  particular  scenes.4 

The  popular  view  attached  great  educational  value  to  music, 
and  the  Pythagorean  philosophy  confirmed  this  opinion.  Har- 
mony and  rhythm,  we  are  told,  enter  into  the  soul,  and,  being 
a  civilizing  influence,  they  give  balance  and  symmetry  to  man's 
nature.  Furthermore,  they  render  the  soul  sensitive  to  beauty 
and  justice,  and  this  at  an  age  when  reasoning  or  formal  in- 
struction is  out  of  the  question.  And,  over  and  above  these 
considerations,  music  is  called  a  most  suitable  occupation  of 
leisure  hours,  and  the  appreciation  of  musical  masterpieces  is 
said  to  prove  the  source  of  refined  pleasures.5  The  fine  musical 
sense  of  the  Greeks  attributed  to  each  instrument,  and  even  to 
the  different  tones,  a  very  definite  character  and  a  correspond- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  259  and  Ussing,  Darstellung  des  Erziehungs-und  Unterrichtswesens 
bei  den   Griechen  und  Romern,  Altona,  1870,  p.  107.     The  principal  passages 
in  Dionys.  Halic.,  de  compos,  verb.,  2<;  and  de  admir.  vi  die.  in  Dem.,  52. 

2  Aelian.  Van,  hist.,  II,  39;  Polyb.,  IV,  20;  Aristoph.,  Nubb.,  967;  Luc., 
Anach.,  22. 

3  Aristoph.,  Av.,  471.     Aesop's  fables  are  still  the  most  popular  of  all  that 
the  Greeks  introduced  from  the  East  into  the  schools  of  the  West.     The  home 
of  these  fables  is  undoubtedly  the  East;  but  some  would  trace  them  to  Egypt 
(Ziindel,  Aesop  in  Aegypten,  Bonn,  1846);  others  to  India  (Otto  Keller,  Unter- 
suchungen  iiber  die  Geschichte  der  griec hisc hen  Fabel,  Leipzig,  1862);    A.  Weber 
(History  of  Indian  Literature,  London,  1878,  p.  211)  inclines  to  the  view  that 
the  Greek  beast-fable  is  a  "Semitic  growth,"  while  Keller  suggests  an  Assyrian 
channel  of  communication. 

4  Ussing,  1.  c.,  pp.  123  ff. 

5  Especially  Plato,  Pro/.,  p.  326;  Rep.,  Ill,  p.  398  ff.;  Arist.,  Pol.,  VIII, 
5,  pp.  1339  ff. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  123 

ing  effect.  The  flute  was  said  to  awaken  the  passions.  The 
tones  of  the  seven-stringed  lyre  were  thought  to  possess  a  cer- 
tain fullness  and  to  ennoble  the  listener.  The  Doric  key  was 
employed  for  voicing  sentiments  of  masculine  strength  and  con- 
sciousness of  power;  and  some  thought  the  Lydian,  others  the 
Phrygian,  key  expressive  of  tender  feelings. 

Gymnastics  was  considered  the  complement  of  liberal  edu- 
cation, with  which  it  was  correlated  by  common  aims  and  con- 
necting links.  The  aim  of  gymnastics  was  to  impart  both 
strength  and  grace.  Music  and  gymnastics  were  combined  in 
the  art  of  the  dance  and  in  the  measured  step,  which  kept  time 
with,  and  followed  the  rythm  of,  music.1  There  was  a  complete 
system  of  gymnastic  rules,  which  necessitated  the  theoretical 
instruction  in  the  art.  As  physical  culture,  gymnastics  was 
closely  related  to  medical  science,  and  in  some  regards  over- 
lapped it.2 

The  so-called  School  of  Douris  (c.  450  B.  C.)  is  a  good  repre- 
sentation of  the  education  of  Greek  boys.3  In  the  middle  of 
the  picture  we  see  a  lad  taking  a  bath.  The  four  pictures  sur- 
rounding this  subject  represent:  a  bearded  teacher  of  the  lyre 
with  his  pupil;  the  same  teacher  unfolding  a  roll  to  the  lad 
before  him,  while  the  pedagogue  with  his  walking-staff  is  seated 
in  the  rear;  a  young  teacher  of  the  flute  with  his  pupil;  and 
lastly  the  same  teacher  writing  on  a  tablet  with  the  pedagogue 
again  near  at  hand. 

After  the  period  of  formal  schooling  the  course  of  liberal 
education  was  continued  amid  the  splendid  opportunities  pro- 
vided on  all  sides.  The  gymnasium  and  the  palaestra  invited 
the  adults  to  their  halls  for  athletic  exercises  and  the  pleasures 
of  social  intercourse.  Concerts,  public  and  private,  kept  alive 
the  interest  in  music.  The  theatre  did  the  same  for  Homer. 
Public  orations  and  discussions  stimulated  the  taste  for  oratory 
and  style.  Aristippus  remarked  that  the  least,  but  still  appre- 
ciable, benefit  of  Greek  schooling  was  that  the  youth  would 
not  sit  like  a  stone  on  the  theatre  seats  of  stone.4  With  this 
co-operation  between  school  and  life,  it  was  to  be  expected 

1  Plato  (I,  Ale.,  p.  108)  connects  the  inpalvei?  dp$fa  with    the  jwv<rtKi);  the 
dance  and  the  measured  step   are,   however,   generally  associated  with  gym- 
nastics. 

2  Cf.  Plato,  Rep.t  III,  pp.  403  ff. 

3  Reproduced  in  Cyclopedia    of  Education,  ed.  by  Paul  Monroe,  s.  v.  Edu- 
cation in  Ancient  Greece. 

4  Diog.  Lsert.,  VIII,  §  72. 


124  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

that  the  schools  would  readily  add  new  subjects  to  their  cur- 
riculum whenever  a  new  interest  entered  into  the  life  of  the 
people.  "When  the  national  wealth  increased  and  with  it  the 
leisure,  when  men  were  hungry  for  new  deeds  and  achievements, 
especially  in  the  pride  of  their  victory  over  the  Medes,  then 
the  people  seized  upon  whatever  was  to  be  learned,  intent  less 
upon  selection  than  upon  quantity. " l  Thus  the  study  of  draw- 
ing became  popular  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century 
B.  C.,  through  the  influence  of  the  painter  Pamphilos  of  Sicyon.2 
The  Sophists  had  even  earlier  introduced  the  study  of  rhetoric 
and  the  practice  of  public  debates.  Mathematics  and  geog- 
raphy were  introduced  into  the  common  schools  only  after 
having  been  taught  for  a  long  time  in  the  schools  of  the  phi- 
losophers. 

4.  The  aim  of  this  liberal  education  was  to  refine  the  intel- 
lectual life  so  that  it  might  accord  with  what  was  demanded 
of  the  free-born  Greek.  It  made  gentlemen,  and  it  was  origi- 
nally concerned  as  little  with  religious  training  as  with  the 
higher  learning.  The  works  of  Homer,  the  basis  of  this  liberal 
education,  were  replete  with  cultural  elements,  but  afforded 
little  incentive  to  science  and  research.  Some  enthusiastic  ad- 
mirers ignorantly  hailed  Homer  as  the  father  of  science.  But 
they  who  saw  the  beginnings  of  scientific  studies  in  the  theo- 
logical treatises  of  priests  or  in  the  wisdom  brought  from  the 
Orient,  were  much  nearer  the  truth.3  In  historical  times  the 
philosophers  were  the  representatives  of  science.  They  were 
not  given  to  speculation  exclusively,  but  commanded  a  wealth 
of  knowledge  that  may  justly  be  described  as  real  science: 
Thales  is  the  first  Greek  astronomer;  Anaximander,  the  first 
geographer;  and  Pythagoras,  the  first  to  cover  the  entire  field 
of  the  mathematical  sciences.  Their  teachings,  far  from  being 
based  on  the  national  liberal  education,  are,  for  the  most  part, 
opposed  to  it:  "Philosophers  and  poets  were  ever  at  variance 
with  one  another,  and  there  are  innumerable  traces  of  their 
ancient  feud."4  Chief  among  these  traces  are  the  attacks  of 
the  philosophers  on  Homer.  At  times  theological  grounds  are 

1  Arist.,  Pol.,  VIII,  6,  p.  1341. 

2  Plin.,  Nat.  Hist.,  35,  10,  77:   "Pamphili  auctoritate  effectum  est  Sicyone 
primum,  deinde  in  tota  Graecia,  ut  pueri  ingenui  omnia  ante  graphicen,  hoc 
est  picttfram  in   buxo  docerentur  recipereturque  ars  ea  in  primum  gradum 
liberalium;"  and  Arist.,  i,  i,  c.  3. 

3  Diog.  Laert.,  Proof m.,  §§  I  ff. 

4  Plato,  Rep.,  X,  p.  607. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  125 

at  the  bottom  of  the  opposition  to  the  poet,  as  in  the  case  of 
Xenophanes  and  Plato,  who  censured  Homer  for  making  the 
gods  into  human  beings.  Plato,  however,  opposed  the  poet 
also  on  moral  grounds,  for  idealizing  the  national  character 
both  in  its  strength  and  its  weaknesses  while  failing  to  implant 
into  the  national  consciousness  any  higher  principles.  At  other 
times  a  contrary  conception  of  the  end  and  nature  of  education 
was  responsible  for  the  mutual  opposition,  as  when  Plato  says 
that  Homer  can,  like  the  conjurer,  mimic  all  the  human  activ- 
ities and  arts,  but  is  not  at  home  in  any  single  field,  and  thus 
deceives  his  readers  with  the  shadow  of  things  without  intro- 
ducing them  into  the  matter  and  inner  nature  of  the  world.1 
Similar  considerations  seem  to  have  induced  Heraclitus,  the 
uncompromising  opponent  of  cyclopedic  learning,  to  demand 
that  Homer  be  driven  from  the  stage  and  whipped.2 

5.  The  most  striking  contrast  between  the  scientific  and 
the  liberal  education  is  furnished  by  the  curricula  of  the  Py- 
thagorean schools,  after  which  Plato  modeled  the  plan  of  studies 
outlined  in  his  Republic.  Pythagoras  examined  every  youth 
desiring  admittance  to  his  school  concerning  his  early  life,  his 
tastes,  and  even  his  personal*  appearance.  "The  artist  looks 
around  for  the  right  kind  of  wood  when  he  desires  to  make  a 
statue  of  Hermes,"  was  a  maxim  of  Pythagoras,  which  has 
become  proverbial  in  the  form,  "  Non  ex  quovis  ligno  fit  Mercu- 
rius."  The  time  of  schooling  covered  five  years,  and  during 
this  period  the  pupil  might  be  dismissed  at  any  time.  The 
pupils  were  at  first  mere  listeners  (d/covcrju-artKot);  they  had  to 
attend  in  silence,  and  were  kept  busy  with  memory  work.  The 
latter  was  highly  esteemed  by  Pythagoras,  who  is  the  author 
of  the  familiar  saying,  "We  know  as  much  as  we  have  in  our 
memory."  To  assist  the  memory,  the  teaching  content  was 
couched  in  pithy,  meaningful  sentences,  which  were  expressed 
in  gnomic  or  catechetical  form,  e.g.,  "Leave  the  highway, 
follow  footpaths;"  "Do  not  speak  unless  you  have  clear  ideas;" 
"What  is  most  wise?  measure  and  number;  and  after  these? 
the  creator  of  language. "  The  training  in  music  was  confined  to 
religious  melodies.  Great  importance  was  attached  to  the  in- 


1  Ibid.,  X,  pp.  598  ff. 

2  Diog.  Lsert.,  IX,  §  i. 


"You  cannot  make  a  Mercury  out  of  every  log,"  /'.  e.,  "Not  every  mind 
will  answer  equally  well  to  be  trained  into  a  scholar."  The  proper  wood  for 
a  statue  of  Mercury  was  boxwood — "vel  quod  hominis  pultorem  prae  se  ferat, 
vel  quod  materies  sit  omnium  maxime  aeterna"  (Erasmus). 


126  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

struction  in  music,  for  music  was  thought  to  possess  the  power 
of  healing  the  diseases  of  the  soul.  In  accordance  with  Appo- 
lonian  theology,  the  words  vd/no?  (law)  and  Kocr/ao?  expressed 
jointly  the  world  of  music  and  the  order  of  morality.  From 
the  status  of  mere  listeners  the  pupils  advanced  to  that  of  the 
p,a6r)iJLaTLKoi,  i.  e.y  students.  The  studies  (/Lta^/xa)  of  these 
advanced  pupils  embraced  the  science  of  numbers  and  space, 
astronomy,  and  theory  of  music — all  of  which  became  known 
subsequently  as  the  mathematical  sciences.  It  is  more  than 
probable,  as  Roth  observes,  that  a  due  distinction  was  even 
then  made  between  the  elementary  study  of  mathematics  which 
dealt  only  with  the  memorizing  and  understanding  of  individual 
and  isolated  propositions,  and  the  more  advanced  grade  of  work 
which  studied  the  relations  between  the  propositions.  Theology, 
which  dealt  with  the  ie/oos  Xoyo?,  and  with  which  the  study 
of  the  esoteric  sciences  (cosmology,  physics,  symbolism  of  num- 
bers) was  connected,  completed  the  course  of  education.1  Plato 
describes  education  as  a  power  of  nursing  and  healing  the  soul2 
(TratSeio,  Suva/Lit?  OepaTrevrLKr)  r//v^?),  and  in  so  saying  seems 
to  refer  to  the  practice  of  the  Mysteries  whose  purpose  was  the 
nursing,  purifying,  and  healing  of  the  soul. 

Plato  would  exclude  from  the  teaching  content  all  that  was 
likely  to  lower  the  divine  to  the  level  of  man,  and  hence  he  had 
to  sacrifice  all  of  Homer's  poetry.  He  preferred  lyrical  and 
didactic  poetry  to  the  epic,  and  permitted  only  such  music  as 
had  a  solemn  and  dignified  character.  The  environment  of 
the  child  should  mirror,  so  Plato  contended,  in  form  and  rythm 
the  elements  of  truth  and  beauty,  so  that  he  would  become 
familiar  with  these  as  with  the  A  B  C  of  the  moral  order.  Math- 
ematics was  to  be  studied  only  by  the  mature  youth,  and  even 
then  not  systematically  (xv&rjv);  nor  was  it  to  be  made  obli- 
gatory. Arithmetic  was  to  be  studied  with  a  view  to  its  train- 
ing in  mental  work  and  in  quickness  of  perception.  Geometry 
was  to  open  the  pupil's  eyes  to  the  objects  at  rest  in  the  midst 
of  the  changes  in  the  universe.  Astronomy  was  to  lead  to  the 
discovery  of  the  eternal  laws  governing  the  motions  of  the 
planets;  and  the  theory  of  music,  to  the  discovery  of  the  eternal 
laws  governing  sound.  Only  youths  of  special  ability  should 
take  up  again,  at  a  later  period,  the  mathematical  sciences, 

1  Roth,  1.  c.,  II,  pp.  473-516  and  pp.  765  ff. 

2  Plato,  "Opot;  p.  416.     The  Spot  belong,  if  not  to  Plato,  at  least  to  the  Old 
Academy. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  127 

which  were  then  to  be  pursued  systematically  and  in  their 
relation  to  dialectics,  /.  <?.,  ideology,  the  science  of  the  eternal. 
Thus  both  Plato  and  Pythagoras  assign  to  liberal  education 
a  merely  preparatory  function,  and  they  regard  mathematics 
as  its  complement  and  as  the  step  leading  to  real  science,  i.  <?., 
philosophy.  Occasionally  Plato  refers  to  philosophy  as  being 
an  art  of  the  Muses,1  but  he  is  then  harking  back  to  the  service 
of  the  Muses  as  practiced  in  the  earliest  times.  Only  in  this 
sense  can  the  following  be  rightly  understood:  "All  men  of 
education  are  servants  of  the  Muses,  especially  the  musicians, 
and  they  are  likewise  servants  of  Apollo,  just  as  all  who  explain 
the  sacred  Mysteries  are  servants  of  Demeter. "2  It  was  Plato, 
too,  who  called  the  philosophers  the  true  bacchanals  and  the 
truly  consecrated.3 

6.  The  keen  mind  of  the  Greeks  could  not  fail  to  introduce 
some  elements  of  the  higher  learning  of  the  philosophers  into 
their  system  of  general  education.  The  statement  that  Py- 
thagoras introduced  mathematics  into  the  educational  course  of 
every  free-born  Greek,4  or,  as  Ovid  puts  it,  "in  medium  discenda 
dabat)"*  has  reference  to  a  larger  circle  than  that  of  his  disciples. 
Even  in  the  time  of  Plato  we  meet  half-grown  youths  discussing 
questions  of  mathematical  geography.6  Pythagoras'  method  of 
writing  music  as  well  as  his  theory  of  music  was  introduced 
into  the  schools  at  an  early  date,  and  Speusippus  systematized 
them  for  practical  instruction.7  Elementary  instruction  in  math- 
ematics was  universal  in  the  Alexandrian  age.  Higher  ethico- 
religious  views  also  became  the  popular  opinions  of  the  day, 
and  the  attempt  was  made  to  reconcile  the  latter  with  Homer's 
philosophy.  Anaxagoras  had  interpreted  Homer  according  to 

Phcedon,    p.    6l  :    0iXo<ro0/a    /zry^m;    /oioiKrt/c^;   Tim.,    p.    88:    /javffiKi]    /cai    Tracra 
<t>i\offo<t>la. 

2  Strab.,  X,  3,  io. 

3  Plato,  Phced.,  p.  6gd  and  Phcedr.,  p.  z^d. 

4  Procl.,  Comment,  in  Eucl.,  II,  p.  19. 

5  Ov.,  Met.,  1 5,  66. 

6  In  the  dialogue  Amatores,  ascribed  to  Plato,  there  is  a  scene  (p.  132)  in 
which  the  youths  dispute  about  different  opinions  of  Anaxagoras  and  Oino- 
pidas.     They  also  draw  circles  and  show  with  their  hands  their  angles  of  in- 
clination.    In  Aristophanes'  Clouds  (vv.  200  flf.)  a  young  wiseacre  is  given  to 
airing  his  knowledge  of  astronomy,  geography,  and  geometry. 

7  This  is  probably  the  meaning  ot  the    tv  rots  /j-aB^nacriv  fdedcraro  rb  Koivbv  KO.I 
ffw^Kdua-ev  dXXiJXots  in  Diog.  Lsert.,  IV,  §  2,  because  the  speculative  relation- 
ship of  these  disciplines  had   been  established,   if  not  by  Pythagoras,  then 
at  the  latest  by  Plato. 


128  GREEK.  EDUCATION. 

ethical  principles,  and  he  was  followed  in  this  work  by  the  Stoics 
who  gave  special  attention  to  this  phase  of  the  Homeric  studies.1 
While  the  higher  learning,  which  drew  upon  the  philosophy 
of  the  pre-Homeric  age,  was  thus  enlarging  the  content  of  liberal 
education,  popular  philosophy  was  active  in  the  same  direction. 
Though  the  popular  philosophy  of  the  Sophists  affords  evident 
proof  that  the  learning  and  speculation  had  deteriorated  and 
had  not  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  nation,  yet  their 
efforts  had  at  least  stimulated  intellectual  activity,  and  con- 
sequently the  history  of  education  may  rate  them  a  little  higher 
than  does  the  history  of  philosophy.  The  Sophists  made  utility 
the  standard  of  all  knowledge  and  skill,  and  their  aim  was  to 
discover  how  the  factors  and  forces  of  life  could  be  made  of 
the  greatest  possible  benefit  to  the  race  and  the  individual. 
Gorgias  recognized  the  art  of  speech  as  the  art  that  would  ac- 
complish this,  because,  as  he  mainatined,  it  embodied  all  other 
arts  and  superseded  all  knowledge.  Other  Sophists  shrank  from 
so  extreme  a  view,  and  contended  that  a  certain  mass  of  knowl- 
edge must  be  mastered  ere  the  gift  of  speech  could  appear  at 
its  best;  and  some  Sophists,  like  Hippias  of  Elis,  made  researches 
in  most  diverse  fields.  By  calling  attention  to  the  questions  of 
the  day  the  Sophists  encouraged  not  only  theoretical  specu- 
lation, but  also  the  practical  application  of  knowledge,  and 
thus  politics,  jurisprudence,  political  economy,  and  ethics  began 
to  be  studied,  even  if  the  viewpoint  was  frankly  utilitarian.  Fur- 
thermore, once  the  interest  in  the  spoken  word  was  awakened, 
men  did  not  rest  satisfied  with  systematizing  the  methods  em- 
ployed in  rendering  language  effective,  but  proceeded  not  only 
to  trace  the  interrelations  of  thought,  as  exhibited  in  spoken 
and  written  language,  but  also  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of 
language  as  such.  The  debates  of  the  Sophists  gave  birth  to 
dialectics  and  logic.  Their  grammatical  distinctions  mark  the 
beginning  of  the  philosophy  of  language,  and  the  latter  has 
proved  the  source  —  a  development  quite  different  from  that 
in  the  East — of  the  scientific  study  of  grammar.  Protagoras 
led  the  way  in  this  field,  for  he  was  the  first  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  different  classes  of  sentences — which  he  called  the 
"roots  of  language"  (TruOpeves  Aoyciw)  — and  he  also  discovered 
the  genus  of  nouns  and  the  relationship  of  agreement.2 


1  Diog.  Laert.,  II,  §  II  and  the  commentaries  on  Horace,  £/>.,  I,  21  ff. 

2  Diog.  Laert.,  IX,  §53;  Arist.,  Rhetor.^  Ill,  5;  Soph,  clench.^  14.     Pro- 
tagoras   distinguishes  at  times  four  classes  of  sentences,  then  seven;  either 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

Socrates  examined  into  the  same  matters  as  the  Sophists, 
but  he  opposed  their  frivolous  tendency  by  taking  a  more  serious 
view  of  life.  He  encouraged  the  serious  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
for  he  declared  knowledge  to  be  not  only  the  means  for  attain- 
ing virtue,  but  identical  with  it.  The  problems  that  he  pro- 
posed, could  not  be  solved  by  playful  reasoning  or  dabbling  in 
science,  but  only  by  deep  and  earnest  study.  The  dialectic  of 
the  Sophists  had  been  mainly  controversial  and  frivolous,  too, 
in  its  eagerness  for  a  dispute,  but  Socrates  changed  it  radically 
and  put  it  to  better  use.  By  developing  the  analytic  operations 
of  the  intellect,  induction  and  definition,  he  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  structure  of  logic,  which  was  later  completed  by  Aris- 
totle. The  Socratic  method  is  the  happy  union  of  the  dialectic 
and  didactic  processes.  The  teaching  process  means  the  freeing 
of  the  mental  powers;  the  knowledge  is  apparently  presented 
to  the  pupil,  yet  he  must  find  it  himself,  and  his  circle  of  thought 
becomes  the  birthplace  of  knowledge. 

The  honor  of  having  continued  and  harmonized  all  that  the 
Sophists  and  Socrates  had  begun  belongs  to  Isocrates.  Isocra- 
tes's  school  at  Chios  is  said  to  have  produced  as  many  men  of 
the  finest  type  of  culture  as  heroes  issued  forth  from  the  Trojan 
Horse.  He  raised  the  art  of  oratory  to  a  truly  educational  and 
cultural  subject  and  made  it  subservient  to  a  moral  aim.  He 
converted  the  egotistical  polymathy  of  the  Sophists  into  a 
many-sided  receptiveness,  after  the  example  of  the  bee,  which 
knows  well  how  to  extract  what  is  wholesome  from  all  flowers.1 
He  popularized  the  view  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  that  the 
chief  function  of  mathematics  is  to  prepare  for  the  study  of 
philosophy."1*  Isocrates  is  also  responsible  for  the  blending  of 
rhetoric  and  historiography,  but  this  blending  was  not  favorable 
to  the  development  of  history.3 

7.  It  remained  for  the  Alexandrian  age  to  compress  all  the 
educational  elements,  introduced  by  the  various  philosophers, 
within  the  compass  of  the  one  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts, 
which  was  to  be  the  standard  in  education  for  so  many  cen- 
turies. It  was  called  ey/cv/cXios  TraiSeia,  ey/cu/cXia  T 


wish,  question,  answer,  command;  or  declaration,  question,  answer,  command, 
message,  request,  and  invocation. 

1  Ad  Demon.,  §§  52  ff. 

2  De  permutatione,  §  264  and  §  256. 

3  Droysen,  Grundriss  der  Historik,  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1875,  p.  76. 


I3O  GREEK  EDUCATION. 


fJM0ypa,Tal,  i.  e.,  the  common  education  or  studies, 
with  the  connotation  of  a  circle  of  education  or  studies.  It 
comprised  grammar,  rhetoric,  dialectic,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
astronomy,  and  music. 

Grammar  did  not  in  this  period  lose  its  primitive  philosoph- 
ical character—  the  Stoics  especially  continued  along  this  line- 
but  it  began  at  the  same  time  to  promote  the  scientific  treat- 
ment of  language  by  assisting  in  the  emendation  of  texts  and 
in  interpretative  criticism.  Going  back  to  the  origins  of  edu- 
cation, it  concerned  itself  mainly  with  Homer's  poetry.  It 
embraced  the  methodical  or  technical  study  of  spoken  and 
written  language  as  well  as  the  historical  or  exegetical  study 
which  dealt  chiefly  with  the  authors'  texts.2  For  the  purpose 
of  teaching  the  Greek  language  to  young  Romans,  Dionysius 
Thrax  reduced  (c.  60  B.  C.),  the  results  of  the  grammatical  re- 
searches to  a  system.  His  book  was  the  first  practical  elementary 
Greek  grammar,  and  it  "became  one  of  the  principal  channels 
through  which  the  grammatical  terminology,  which  had  been 
carried  from  Athens  to  Alexandria,  flowed  back  to  Rome,  to 
spread  from  thence  over  the  whole  civilized  world."  Rhetoric 
examined  the  different  species  of  oratory,  treated  of  the  in- 
vention and  arrangement  of  thought,  of  style,  memory,  and 
elocution,  gave  directions  for  model  compositions  (chria),  and 
classified  the  tropes  and  figures.  Aristotle's  Rhetoric,  the  T^mj 
prjropLKTJ  of  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  a  contemporary  of  Dio- 
nysius Thrax,  and  the  npoyv/avacr/aara  of  Hermogenes,  Aph- 
thonius  and  other  rhetoricians,  or  technicians,  as  they  were 
called,  of  imperial  Rome  give  us  a  good  and  succinct  view  of 
what  was  usually  taught  in  the  schools  under  the  name  of 
rhetoric.4 

From  the  scant  material  extant  in  regard  to  .the  study  of 
logic,  we  cannot  say  how  much  of  this  subject  was  studied  in 
the   schools.     There  is  no  Greek   textbook  of  elementary  dia- 
lectic  extant,   and   the   Roman   encyclopedias    (see.  ch.   XII)— 
compilations  of  what  was   taught  in   the  Greek  schools  —  give 

1  For  complete  references  see  Wower,   De  polymathia  tractatio,    1603,  cap. 
XXIV,  pp.  208-21  3. 

2  Concerning  the  different  definitions  and  divisions  of  grammar  cf.  Sext. 
Empir.,  Adv.  Gram.,  pp.  224  ff.  Fabr.  Cf.  also  Wower,  1.  c.,  pp.  u  ff. 

3  M.ax  Miiller,  The  Science  of  Language,  New  York,  1891,  I,  pp.  103  ff. 

4  Krause,  Geschichte  der  Erziehung  bei  den  Griechen,  Halle,  1851,  pp.  179  ff. 
Cf.  R.  C.  Jebb's  translation  of  Aristotle's  Rhetoric  (ed.  by  J.  E.  Sandys,  1909) 
and  hi  s  Attic  Orators,  1876. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

more  attention  to  oratorical  training  than  to  logical  materials 
in  what  they  quote  under  the  head  of  dialectic  from  Aristotle 
and  the  Stoics.1 

The  Elements   (crrot^eta)    of  the  Platonist   Euclid   of  Gela 
(c.  300  B.  C.)  were  the  basis  of  geometry  and  arithmetic.     The 
Elements,  however,  were  not  the  first  systematic  textbook,  for 
the  Pythagorean  Hippocrates  had  written  one  150  years  earlier,2 
but  the  fame  of  Euclid's  book  eclipsed  all  former  works.     In 
Euclid's  book  plane  geometry  is  treated  in  six  books;  arithmetic, 
in   four;  and  solid  geometry,  in   three.     The  presentation  has 
been    much    admired,   imitated    even    by   philosophers,    and   is 
to-day   still    the   standard   for   our   textbooks:    the   definitions, 
postulates,  and  axioms  head  the  list,  and  the  teaching  matter 
is  contained  in  the  theorems  and  problems.     The  structure  of 
the  whole  reveals  great  art,  yet  allows  no  view  into  the  relation 
of  the  mathematical  truths,  because  the  propositions  are  treated 
more  as  matter  for  memory  and  reflection  than  as  members  of 
a  scientific  organism.     It  would  seem  that  only  the  first  book— 
of  which  the  theorem  of  Pythagoras  is  the  last,  and  which  was 
often   edited   and   annotated — was   in   general   use.      From   the 
Roman  encyclopedias  we  can  conclude  that  geographical  matter 
was  introduced  into  geometry,  and  that  the  encyclical  arith- 
metic treated  only  the  theory  and  symbolism  of  numbers  and 
did  not  include  the  theory  of  the  four  operations.3     From  what 
Strabo  requires  of  the  readers  of  his  work  on  geography  we 
can  infer  how  much  astronomy  was  taught  in  the  schools.     He 
says  that  the  reader  "should  be  familiar  with  the  shape  of  the 
earth  and  its  circles  (parallel,  perpendicular,  and  oblique),  and 
know  the  position  of  the  tropic  of  Cancer  and  of  the  tropic  of 
Capricorn,  of  the  equator  and  the  zodiac,  as  well  as  the  paths 
of  the  sun  which  show  the  difference  in  the  degrees  of  latitude 
and  the  winds;  for  he  who  is  ignorant  of  the  horizon  and  the 
Arctic  and  Antarctic  Circles  and  of  other  elementary  matters 
of  mathematics,  might  well  despair  of  grasping  what  is  to  be 
explained  here."4  Geography  was  naturally  studied  in  connec- 

1  Prantl,  Geschichte  der  Logik,  I,  pp.  528,  578  ff. 

2  Roth,  1.  c.,  II,  p.   586.     Cf.   The   Thirteen  Books  of  Euclid's  Elements, 
transl.  with  introduction  and  commentary  by  T.  L.  Heath,  3  vols.,  Cambridge, 
1908;  A\\mann,GreekGeometry  from  Thales  to  Euclid,  Dublin,  1889;  on  Euclid: 
Cantor,   Vorlesungen  iiber  Geschichte  der  Mathematik,  Leipzig,  1880,  pp.  221  ff. 

3  Cf.  Peacock's  article  Arithmetic  in  the  Encyclopedia  Metropolitana,  which 
contains  a  detailed  account  of  the  Greek  system. 

4  Strabo,  I,  pp.  12-13. 


132  GREEK.  EDUCATION. 

tion  with  elementary  astronomy,  and  the  form  of  the  elementary 
geographies  of  the  Alexandrian  age — they  are  written  in  verse 
to  assist  the  memory — leads  us  to  believe  that  they  were  used 
in  the  schools.1  Music,  as  taught  in  the  schools,  embraced  the 
knowledge,  first,  of  the  instruments,  next,  of  the  height  and 
depth  of  the  tones,  and,  finally,  of  their  duration.  Different 
symbols  were  employed  for  writing  vocal  and  instrumental 
music,  and  the  two  styles  were  more  difficult  than  our  system, 
as  it  took  several  months  to  teach  the  pupils  to  read  music.2 

In  the  golden  age  of  Greek  culture  the  course  of  liberal 
education  was  kept  up  and  perfected  amid  the  multiform  inter- 
ests of  a  highly  developed  national  life.  But  the  encyclical 
(enzykliscti}  education  of  the  Alexandrian  age  was  rounded  off 
by  literary  work  and  higher  studies.  In  the  latter  age  the  de- 
mand created  a  large  supply  of  reading  matter  to  take  the  place 
of  the  public  life  and  social  intercourse  of  the  earlier  period.3 
Didactic  poetry  formed  part  of  this  popular  literature,  and 
though  its  artistic  value  is  practically  nil,  it  promoted  the  inter- 
ests of  education,  for  it  made  the  elements  of  higher  learning 
the  common  property  of  the  masses,  and  thus  much  of  what 
might  otherwise  have  remained  pure  theory  or  inaccessible;  was 
made  to  serve  the  practical  needs  of  the  time.  Astronomy, 
geography  (general  and  local),  history,  mythology,  agriculture, 
hunting,  medicine,  etc.,  were  treated  in  didactic  poems.  The 
term  philology  now  came  into  use  for  designating  the  amateur 
as  well  as  the  professional  occupation  with  scientific  matters. 
Though  this  term  had  been  employed  formerly  in  the  sense  of 
scientific  or  educational  interests,4  yet  this  use  had  been  only 
occasional,  and  it  became  general  only  after  Eratosthenes  had 
first  called  himself  a  philologist.  There  is  some  relation  in  the 
meaning  of  philology  and  polymathy,  which  latter  term  also 
came  into  general  use  about  the  same  time.  But  while  phi- 
lology implies  primarily  book  learning,  polymathy  expresses 
primarily  the  desire  for  many-sided  knowledge. 

8.  Philology  and  polymathy  were  never  considered  the  com- 
pletion of  education.  They  were  regarded  as  merely  extending 


1  Bernhardy,  Griechische  Literaiurgeschichle,  I,  p.  99. 

2  Boeckh,  Enzyklopadie  und  Methodologie  der  philologischen  fPissenschaften, 
ed.  by  Bratuschek,  Leipzig,  1 877,  pp.  503  ff. 

3  At   this   time   dvayiyixlxrKfiv  came  to  mean:    to  read,  to  occupy  oneself 
with  books;  popular  writers  were  called  dvayvwriKol.     Bernhardy,  1.  c.,  I,  p.  57; 
Grassberger,  1.  c.,  pp.  283  ff. 

>i\&v  \6yovs  xal 


THE  CONTENT  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  133 

the  boundaries  of  knowledge  and  as  leading  up  to  the  highest 
field,  to  philosophy.  In  this  sense  Strabo  assigns  to  the  phi- 
lologist Eratosthenes  a  middle  place  between  him  who  devotes 
himself  to  philosophy,  /.  e.,  scientific  research,  and  the  other 
who  would  not  venture  so  far,  yet  is  desirous  of  going  beyond 
the  encyclical  course  of  studies.1  Philosophy  had  to  maintain 
its  superiority  the  more  as  it  had  begun  with  Aristotle  to  em- 
brace as  its  own  department  all  that  was  proper  to  polymathy. 
Aristotle,  whom  Dante  calls  "The  master  of  those  who  know," 
the  type  of  the  man  who  combines  the  scrutinizing  eye  of  the 
research  worker  with  the  gift  of  universal  knowledge,  was  fit- 
tingly born  in  the  beginning  of  the  Alexandrian  age,  for  he 
well  marks  the  change  ushered  in  with  that  period.  All  phi- 
losophers agreed  that  their  science  is  the  completion  and  end 
of  education,  and  they  differed  only  in  their  evaluation  of  the 
encyclical  studies.  The  Stoics  refused  to  acknowledge  that  these 
studies  had  a  propaedeutic  function.  However  the  Academy, 
true  to  its  founder,  held  the  opposite  view  and  looked  partic- 
ularly upon  the  mathematical  sciences  as  the  handmaids  of 
philosophy;2  but  to  such  as  rested  satisfied  with  this  preparatory 
work  instead  of  taking  up  the  higher  studies,  the  words  of  Aris- 
tippus  were  applied:  they  resemble  the  suitors  of  Penelope,  who, 
when  the  mistress  was  refused  them,  were  content  with  her 
maids.3 

How  the  deeper  natures  of  the  age  sought  to  combine  phi- 
losophy and  polymathy,  is  seen  in  the  beautiful  allegory  of 
Nicholas  of  Damascus,  contemporary  and  friend  of  Augustus. 
The  studies  are  compared  to  a  journey:  at  one  place  the  trav- 
eller makes  a  brief  call,  at  another  place  he  takes  only  a  meal, 
at  other  places  he  spends  entire  days.  Some  objects  he  scru- 
tinizes carefully,  at  others  he  merely  glances,  but  having  re- 
turned home,  he  takes  up  his  permanent  abode  in  his  own  house. 
The  friend  of  studies  will  conduct  himself  in  a  similar  Way: 
he  will  give  much  time  to  one  subject,  to  another  but  little; 
some  sciences  he  will  try  to  master,  while  he  is  satisfied  with 
the  elements  of  others;  and  after  he  has  tasted  of  all  that  seemed 
inviting,  he  turns  to  philosophy  to  dwell  permanently  in  her 

1  Strabo,  I,  p.  15. 

For  Zeno's  opinion  see  Diog.  Laert.,  VII,  §  32;  Chrysippus  expressed 
himself  more  favorably,  ib.,  §  129.  When  a  youth  who  was  ignorant  of  music, 
geometry,  and  astronomy  applied  toXenocrates  for  instruction,  the  philosopher 
refused  saying,  irop&!>ov,  Xa^As  ykp  OVK  2x«*  <j>i\offo<f>ias.  Ib.,  IV,  §  IO. 

3  Ib.,  II,  §  79;  cf.  Pseudoplut.,  De  lib.  educ.>  10. 


134  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

company.1  To  have  traced  philosophy  back  to  its  theological 
elements,  is  the  principal  achievement  of  the  Neo-Platonists 
and  Neo-Pythagoreans.  They  tried  to  recreate  the  oldest  wis- 
dom and  to  convert  philosophy  into  a  theological  science.  In 
this  way  the  formal  disciplines  of  philosophy  came  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  preparation  for  theology,  the  latter  remaining,  as 
it  were,  the  core  of  the  former.  Hence  there  are  four  steps  in 
education  conceived  in  the  highest  sense:  liberal  studies,  mathe- 
matics, philosophy,  and  theology. 

Greek  education  finds  its  completion,  then,  in  that  very  ele- 
ment with  which  the  schools  had  in  the  East,  and,  to  some  ex- 
tent, even  in  Greece,  begun.  While  the  priestly  learning  of  the 
East  and  of  Greece  in  the  Pelasgian  age  formed  the  foundation 
of  all  general  education,  the  liberal  education  of  Hellenic  Greece 
was  at  first  saturated  with  aesthetical  materials.  It  was  only 
later  that  the  scientific  research  workers  began  to  add  scientific 
elements  to  the  cultural  subjects,  /and  their  solid  contributions 
proved  a  basis  of  profane  knowledge  that  was  almost  equal  in 
strength  to  the  religious  beliefs  that  had  been  the  foundation 
of  primitive  education.  It  has  been  frequently  observed,  and 
that  justly,  that  Providence  guided  matters  so  that  at  the  time 
when  Christianity  was  to  be  introduced  into  the  world,  the 
culture  of  Greece  had  stamped  itself  upon  the  whole  ancient 
civilization  and  was  fast  making  its  way  into  the  most  distant 
countries,  with  the  result  that  national  differences  were  rapidly 
disappearing.  It  may  be  added  that  the  very  development  of 
the  content  of  Greek  education  was  also  providential:  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Greeks  was  not,  as  with  the  Hindus,  Egyptians, 
and  Persians,  a  thing  that  was  added  to  old  and  unchangeable 
beliefs.  It  was  rather  a  union  of  loosely  joined  materials,  and 
one  that  was  seeking  solidity  and  depth;  and  this  was  undoubt- 
edly the  happiest  condition  for  giving  welcome  to  the  new 
theology  and  philosophy. 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Ethos  of  Greek  Education. 

i.  It  is  undeniable  that  there  were  vast  differences  among 
the  ancient  Greeks  arising  partly  from  the  division  of  the  people 

1  Suidas,  s.  v.  N«6Xooj,  cf.  Pseudoplut.,  De  lib.  educ.y  10,  and  G.  J.  Vossius, 
De  ratione  studiorum,  Ultra).,  1651,  p.  12. 


THE  ETHOS  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  135 

into  tribes  and  commonwealths,  entirely  distinct  from  one  an- 
other, and,  partly  from  the  opposite  tendencies,  which  at  differ- 
ent times,  or  even  at  the  same  time,  influenced  Hellenic  life. 
In  view  of  these  differences  it  may  well  appear  most  difficult  to 
describe  briefly  and  succinctly  the  ethos  and  character  of  Greek 
education.  The  education  of  the  Athenian  differed  toto  coelo 
from  the  education  of  the  Spartan.  The  Athenian  could  boast 
"of  his  ability,  skill,  and  grace  displayed  in  many  fields,"  and 
could  point  to  his  own  Athens  as  being  "the  school  of  whole 
Greece. "  The  Spartan  had  to  bear  the  reproach  of  his  own 
countryman  that  he  was  an  a/aoucros,  one  lacking  a  liberal 
education.  However,  he  was  proudly  conscious  of  his  training 
to  self-reliant  manhood:  "Man  differs  but  little  from  man," 
says  Archidamus,  "but  he  who  has  passed  through  the  severest 
training  will  prove  most  valiant  in  life's  battle."  Similarly, 
we  have,  "on  the  one  hand,  the  serious  and  deep  views  of  edu- 
cation which  the  Pythagoreans  expressed,  in  their  principles 
concerning  the  proving  of  the  mind  and  heart,  and  which  they 
embodied  in  their  systematic  grading  of  studies.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  have  the  shallow  view  of  the  Sophists,  the  lo- 
quacious busybodies  who  dreamed  that  all  could  be  learned  and 
all  taught,  as  though  nature  or  the  gods  had  bestowed  the  same 
gifts  upon  all  alike.3  And  there  is  almost  as  great  a  difference 
between  the  doctrinairism  of  Xenophanes  and  Heraclitus  who 
opposed  the  popular  beliefs,  and  Aristotle's  universality  which 
was  born  of  historical  studies.  Nay,  even  the  same  philosopher 
will  give  expression  to  views  diametrically  opposed  to  each 
other:  in  his  Republic  Plato  assigns  to  philosophy  the  highest 
place;  but  in  his  Laws,  where  he  appears  to  be  convinced  of  the 
need  of  an  historical  faith,  he  declares  the  worship  of  the  gods 
as  practiced  in  early  Greece  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  inner 
life. 

Still,  there  are  certain  traits  broadly  characteristic  of  Greek 
education,  and  the  most  prominent  of  these  is  the  sharp  dis- 
tinction made  between  cultural  or  liberal  education  and  voca- 


1  Pericles  in  Thuc.,  II,  41,  i:    rrjs  'EXXdSoy  walStvffiv,    cf.  Diod.,  XIII,  27: 

raiSevr-fipiov  irdriv  dvOpwir<ns.  Isocrates  (Pan.,  50)  says  that  Athens  is  so 
superior  to  all  other  places,  that  the  Athenian  pupil  is  able  to  be  the  teacher  of 
others,  and  that  they  alone  deserve  to  be  called  Hellenes  who  have  been  edu- 
cated in  Athens. 

2  Thuc.  I,  84,  4. 

3  Steinthal  has  given  a  good  sketch  of  this  "  philistinism  "  in  the  Zeitschrift 
fur  Volkerpsychologie^  IV,  p.  470. 


136  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

tional  training.  The  freeman  should  receive  only  a  liberal 
education;  it  alone  deals  with  liberal  arts  and  works  (ejpya, 
'  jjLaB-rjfjiaTa  eXeu#e/)a),  whereas  the  preparation  for  a  trade  or 
profession  smacks  of  manual  labor,  of  working  for  gain,  and 
even  of  slavery  (ftdvavo-ov,  B-rjriKov,  SovXi/coV).  Even  in  the 
liberal  arts  it  is  forbidden  to  aim  at  virtuosity  (TT/JO?  TO  eWeXeY). 
The  purpose  of  the  gymnasium  is  not  the  training  of  athletes, 
neither  should  the  training  in  music  produce  the  professional 
musician.  Only  such  studies  are  worthy  of  the  freeman  as  are 
pursued  for  the  sake  of  the  interest  and  pleasure  found  in  them, 
or  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  virtue,  or  of  occupying  one's 
leisure;  and  they  alone  constitute  a  liberal  education  (iratSeta 
eXevOepios  KOL  KaXr;).1  The  Greeks  refused  to  apply  the  test  of 
profit,  usefulness,  or  gain,  to  what  was  learned  in  the  schools, 
and  several  anecdotes  are  related  to  illustrate  how  vile  any  such 
valuation  appeared  to  the  Greek  mind.  One  of  the  best-known 
is  that  told  of  Euclid.  Some  one  who  had  begun  to  read  geom- 
etry with  Euclid,  when  he  had  learned  the  first  theorem,  asked, 
"But  what  shall  I  get  by  learning  these  things?"  Euclid  called 
his  slave  and  said,  "Give  him  three  obols,  since  he  must  make 
gain  out  of  what  he  learns."  It  was  likewise  contrary  to  the 
Greek  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  to  let  the  teachers  be  paid 
for  their  services,  and  the  Sophists,  who  were  the  first  to  demand 
financial  remuneration  for  their  instruction,  were  severely  cen- 
sured by  the  Athenians.  Isocrates,  who  followed  the  example 
of  the  Sophists,  seems  to  have  set  up  his  school  just  on  this 
account  in  Chios  instead  of  in  Athens.  The  rhetoricians  of  a 
later  age  accepted  compensation  regularly,  but  it  is  significant 
that  it  was  a  universal  complaint  that  not  interest,  but  pecu- 
niary gain  was  the  sole  incentive  of  study.2 

2.  In  keeping  with  these  views, education  was  not  considered 
an  instrument,  an  equipment,  or  a  fitting  out  for  one's  lifework, 
but  was  prized  as  an  ornament  of  man.  Aristotle  calls  it  so,3 
and  Diogenes  compared  it  to  a  gold  crown  that  conferred  high- 
est honor  upon  the  wearer.4  Demonax  has  a  still  happier  com- 
parison: as  the  cities  are  adorned  with  votive  offerings  (dvoftf- 
/otacrt),  so  must  the  minds  of  men  be  adorned  with  the  choice 

1  Arist.,  Pol.y  VIII,  2  and  3  in.,  pp.  1337  and  1338. 

2  Diod.,  II,  29;  Galen.,  Method,  med.,  I,  i.    The  Greek  tpyo\apla  corre- 
sponds to  our  "bread-and-butter  studies." 

3  Quoted  by  Diog.  Laert.,  V,  §  19. 

4  Job.  Damasc.,  in  the  appendix  to  Gaisford,  Stob.  Eel.  phys.  et  eth.,  Vol.  II, 

No.  92:  Kal  7dp  TIH-//V  ?xet  K 


THE  ETHOS  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  137 

gifts  of  education.1  But  this  adornment  is  to  be  not  a  mere 
appendage,  but  to  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  personality. 
Education,  once  acquired,  is  man's  inalienable  possession,  and 
Stilpon's  answer  to  the  question  as  to  what  he  had  lost  in  the 
devastation  of  his  native  town,  must  be  understood  in  this 
sense;  for  he  replied,  "I  have  lofst  nothing  that  belonged  to  me; 
I  still  possess  my  mind  and  my  education;  all  the  rest  belongs 
to  the  conquerors  no  less  than  to  me. "  And  the  same  is  prob- 
ably the  meaning  of  this  saying  of  Democritus,  "Nature  and 
teaching  are  much  the  same;  for  the  teaching  changes  man  and 
through  this  change  gives  him  a  second  nature. "  As  an  ele- 
ment of  the  personality,  education  strengthens  and  directs  man's 
inner  life;  it  makes  his  mental  faculties  keen  and  alert,  and 
affords  both  joy  and  consolation.  And  thus  the  man  without 
an  education  is  described  as  lost  amid  the  maze  of  things,  like 
strangers  wandering  about  the  streets  of  a  city.  He  is  said  to 
be  dreaming  away  his  life,  while  the  educated  man  has  in  himself 
the  source  of  perennial  joy  and  undying  hope,  and  a  safe  refuge 
from  all  distress.4 

Being  the  most  precious  ornament  of  the  freeman,  education 
should  not  and  can  not  be  imparted  by  force:  "The  free  and 
voluntary  study  of  the  arts  and  sciences  is  the  only  proper 
course,  and  the  only  one  that  will  prove  successful;  all  forced 
study  is  of  evil  and  will  defeat  its  own  purpose. "  Again, 
"No  freeman  should  be  forced  to  acquire  any  knowledge;  the 
body  is  not  debased  by  being  forced  to  work,  but  knowledge 
forced  upon  the  mind  will  never  be  rooted  in  the  memory." 
The  joy  of  studying  should  be  the  strongest  incentive,  and 
after  it  the  desire  "to  be  the  first  in  everything,  and  in  all  things 
to  surpass  all  others."7  The  latter  motive  is  that  thirst  after 
glory  which  was  celebrated  by  Homer,  which  animated  the 
wrestlers  at  the  Olympic  games,  which  called  forth  the  emu- 
lation of  poets  and  artists,  and  which  was  the  mainspring  of  all 
ancient  activity  down  to  the  last  days  of  the  ancient  world, 
when  the  desire  to  excel  came  to  be  considered  a  harmful  influ- 


1  Gaisford,  1.  c.,  No.  53. 

2  Ibid.,  No.  152:   \6yos  Kal  iraidela. 

3  Mullach,  Democr.  fragm.,  Berlin,  1843,  p.  186  and  p.  293:  ^  <£i/<rtj  *al 

irapair\Ji<ri.6v  &rrt,   Kal  y&p  17  dtSax^l  fterap'pvffiJMi  rbv    HvOpuirov,    /aera/S/WjuoOffa 
' 


. 

4  Gaisford,  1.  c.,  Nos.  134,  131,  140;  Diog.  Laert,  I,  §  69. 

5  Aristoxenos  in  Gaisford,  1.  c.,  No.  119. 

6  Plato,  Rep.,  VII,  p.  537. 
1  Iliad,  VI,  2085X1,783. 


138  GREEK.  EDUCATION.  ( 

ence  as  interfering  with  man's  inborn  liberty.  The  teaching 
process  was  also  to  follow,  as  far  as  possible,  the  path  of  free 
and  unhampered  development.  He  was  the  best  teacher  who 
had  a  free  and  creative  command  of  the  entire  field.  The 
Greeks  recognized  three  kinds  of  teaching  and  named  them 
after  the  three  first  ages  of  Hesiod:  the  teachers  who  impart 
knowledge  which  they  have  received  from  no  source  other  than 
themselves,  are  performing  a  golden  work;  the  labor  of  those 
who  impart  only  what  they  have  themselves  received,  is  of 
silver,  and  of  brass  if  they  withhold  from  others  what  they 
have  received.1  Here  we  have  the  Greek  conception  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  traditionalism  of  the  East,  but  also  the  overvalu- 
ation of  creative  work. 

A  further  trait  of  Greek  education  is  its  fullness  and  many- 
sidedness.  Socrates  compared  it  to  a  pageant  or  a  great  fair 
where  the  eye  and  ear  are  busy  with  seeing  and  hearing,2  and 
to  a  fertile  field  which  produces  fruit  and  grain  of  many  kinds.3 
At  the  same  time,  however,  he  bids  his  countrymen  heed  the 
example  of  the  fruit-grower  who  does  not  plant  the  fruit  trees 
too  near  to  one  another,  in  order  to  allow  them  space  enough 
for  development.4  This  advice  was  sorely  needed.  The  con- 
tent of  Greek  education  was  so  rich  and  the  Greek  mind  so 
keen  and  receptive  that  there  was  great  danger  lest  the  very 
many-sidedness  should,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  wealth  of  mate- 
rial, render  a  unity  of  view  impossible,  and  lest  the  mere  ap- 
pearance of  things  should  be  considered  their  nature  and  essence. 
The  greatest  men  of  the  nation  recognized  this  danger,  and  they 
never  ceased  warning  their  countrymen  not  to  be  busy  bodies 
and  dabblers  in  all  sciences.  Homer  caricatured  the  Jack-of- 
all-trades  in  his  Margites^  who  "was  conversant  with  many 
fields,  but  master  of  none."  Pindar  says  that  "to  sip  of  a 
thousand  virtues  would  never  satisfy  man's  heart."  Heraclitus 
is  convinced  that  "much  learning  does  not  give  spirit;"6  and 
Democritus  demanded  that  one  should  strive  not  for  a  fullness 
of  knowledge,  but  for  a  fullness  of  the  mind.7  Socrates  and 


1  Gaisford,  1.  c.,  No.  97. 

Gaisford,    1.   C.,    No.   44:    var/iyvpls    fan  \fsvxfjs  *l  iraidela,  woXXa  ydp  foriv  iv 
O.VTT)  tyvx!ns   8ea.fj.aTa.  ical  d«coi;0yxara. 

3  Ibid.,  No.  103. 

4  Ibid.,  No.  102. 

5  II6XX'   -livlffTa.ro  <tpya,  KCWCWJ  8'   •fyriffra.ro  irdvra. 

6  Diog.  Laert.,  IX,  §§  7  and  ff. 

7  Mullach.,  l.*c.,  p.  187:  IIoXvwiV  ov  vo\ina.0lriv 


THE  ETHOS  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION.  139 

Plato  opposed  the  Sophists  for  dabbling  in  too  many  things: 
"Ignorance  is  not  the  greatest  of  evils;  it  is  much  more  harmful 
to  dabble  in  all  things  under  the  direction  of  a  bad  master." 
Plato's  command,  "Let  each  one  perform  his  own  proper  duty," 
is  levelled  at  the  multiplicity  of  occupations  engaged  in  by  the 
Greeks,  and  the  same  principle  is  the  foundation  of  his  ideal 
Republic.  However,  the  Greeks  continued  to  be  dabblers  in  all 
kinds  of  knowledge.  The  science  of  the  Alexandrian  age  struts 
about  in  patches  of  many  hues.  And  in  the  Roman  period  the 
satirist  made  sport  of  "the  diminutive  and  hungry  Greek  who 
is  a  master  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  who  can,  upon  com- 
mand, ascend  even  into  heaven. " 

3.  This  erroneous  tendency  is  attacked  at  the  very  root  by 
those  philosophers  who,  in  contrast  to  the  purely  sesthetical 
conception,  stress  the  moral  factors  inherent  in  education.  It 
would  be  unfair  to  the  earlier  thinkers  to  regard  Socrates  as  the 
first  to  bring  out  these  moral  elements,  as  it  is  likewise  contrary 
to  fact  to  assert  that  he,  by  substituting  moral  speculation  for 
the  exclusively  physical,  called  philosophy  from  heaven  to  earth. 
Yet  it  remains  true  that  the  efforts  of  Socrates  were  most  effec- 
tive in  directing  the  minds  of  his  contemporaries  as  well  as  the 
succeeding  generations  to  the  moral  side  of  education.  Con- 
sistently with  his  view  that  knowledge  and  virtue  are  identical, 
Socrates  looked  upon  education  as  the  most  efficient,  if  not  the 
sole,  means  for  arriving  at  virtue,  and  hence  intellectual  growth 
involved  a  growth  in  virtue  also.  The  philosphers  who  came 
after  Socrates  did  not  ignore  the  moral  force  of  education,  but 
were  wise  in  not  accepting  his  exaggerated  views  in  this  regard. 
Aristotle  considers  education  one  of  the  means  for  acquiring 
virtue,  but  he  holds  discipline  and  the  acquiring  of  habits  to  be 
greater  moral  forces.3  The  Stoics  regard  all  studies  as  means 
of  discipline  and  as  a  medicine  of  the  soul. 

The  moral  and  aesthetical  aims  of  education  pushed  the 
religious  end  into  the  background.  The  religious  end,  however, 
was  never  entirely  ignored.  The  entire  system"  of  liberal  edu- 
cation had  been  named  after  the  Muses.  Apollo  and  Hermes 
were  its  personifications  among  the  gods.  The  poets  whose 
creations  were  the  common  property  of  the  nation,  were  re- 
garded, not  merely  as  the  favored  servants  and  disciples  of  the 


1  Plato,  Legg.,  VII,  p.  819. 

2  Juv.,  Sat.,  Ill,  7. 

3  Arist.,  Pot.,  VII,  13,  p.  1332  and  Eth.  NIC.,  X,  10,  p.  1179. 


I4O  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

Muses,  but  as  the  interpreters  of  the  gods.1  "To  educate  oneself 
or  other  men,"  was  considered  "a  sacred  and  divine  work. " 2 
Education  was  itself  worshipped  as  one  of  the  gods,  and  its 
devotees  were  described  as  a  religious  brotherhood  (#10,0-09)  .8 
Plato  and  Pythagoras  declared  the  directing  of  the  mind  to 
sacred  things  to  be  the  essence  of  education.  Plato  taught  that 
man  could  not  turn  to  the  divine  without  having  first  undergone 
a  complete  change  and  without  turning  away  his  attention  from 
the  shadows  of  the  material  world,  and  thus  education  would 
be  both  a  Treptaywy^  and  a  /u-eraoT/xx^if.  He  considered  the 
process  of  instruction  to  involve  the  purification  and  quickening 
of  that  organ  of  the  soul  "that  is  more  deserving  of  being  pre- 
served than  a  thousand  eyes,  since  it  is  with  it  that  we  behold 
the  truth,  the  divine."  Continuing  along  these  lines,  the  Neo- 
Platonists  found  no  difficulty  in  making  theology  the  capstone 
of  education.  All  the  philosophers  mentioned  have  a  socio- 
ethical  conception  of  education,  and  consider  the  work  of  teach- 
ing and  learning  to  be  the  process  of  transmitting  to  those 
coming  after  the  inheritance  of  a  former  age.5  But  this  view 
was  foreign  to  the  general  trend  of  the  Greek  mind.  In  their 
efforts  to  perpetuate  the  gifts  of  culture  the  Greeks  were  actu- 
ated more  by  the  desire  to  gain  for  themselves  immortal  fame 
than  by  that  of  handing  down  to  future  generations  their  knowl- 
edge and  learning. 

4.  Education  and  culture  were  ever  live  topics  with  the 
Greeks,  and  the  questions  dealing  with  them  were  often  dis- 
cussed. Aristotle  gives  us  a  brief  list  of  the  main  subjects 
under  discussion:  "Our  age  disputes  a  great  deal  about  the 
ends  and  aims  of  education.  There  are  different  opinions  as 
to  what  is  to  be  learned  by  the  young,  either  to  make  them 
virtuous  or  happy  for  life.  It  is  still  an  open  question  whether 
more  attention  should  be  given  to  the  development  of  the  intel- 
lect or  to  the  training  of  the  character.  The  education  prevail- 
ing at  the  present  time  throws  no  light  on  the  subject,  nor  does 
it  decide  whether  the  schools  should  fit  the  pupils  to  meet  the 
needs  of  practical  life,  or  train  them  to  virtue,  or  introduce 
them  to  higher  studies:  each  of  these  several  views  has  found 


1  Plato,  Legg.,  Ill,  p.  882. 

2  Plato,  Theag.,  p.  122. 

3  Grassberger,  1.  c.,  I,  p.  192  and  II,  p.  30. 

4  Plato,  Rep.y  VII,  pp.  521  and  527. 

5  Ct.  suftra.  r>.  22. 


X    1CIIVS*      iVf    //.j        T    •*•*•> 

5  Cf".  supra,  p.  22. 


THE  GREEK  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 


its  defenders."  The  philosophers  generally  dealt  with  the  sub- 
ject of  education  in  their  socio-philosophical  writings.  Thus 
Plato's  Republic  and  Laws  and  Aristotle's  Politics  treat  of  the 
science  of  education,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  Aristotle  has 
not  completed  his  treatise  on  the  subject  (see  supra  p.  23). 
But  the  subject  of  the  science  of  education  was  also  treated 
separately  or  in  connection  with  pedagogical  matters.  Of  such 
works  the  treatise  on  the  education  of  children,  ascribed  to 
Plutarch,  is  the  only  book  that  has  come  down  to  us.  But 
Democritus,  Antisthenes,  Aristippus,  Aristotle,  Theophrastus, 
and  Clearchos  also  wrote  on  education  (Trepi  TrcuSeias).  The 
work  of  the  last-named  writer  must  have  included  materials 
belonging  to  the  history  of  education;  at  least  he  discussed 
therein  the  relations  between  the  wisdom  of  the  Indian  gymno- 
sophists  and  the  learning  of  the  Magi.2  The  Stoic  Zeno  wrote 
Of  Greek  Education,  with  references,  no  doubt,  to  the  points  of 
difference  between  it  and  foreign  educational  systems.3  The 
same  philosopher,  as  well  as  Chrysippus  and  Plutarch,  wrote  on 
the  study  of  poetry.  We  find  directions  for  private  study 
intermingled  with  general  rules  in  several  treatises  of  Isocrates 
(e.  £.,  in  the  writings  addressed  to  Demonicus  and  Nicocles) 
and  in  the  numerous  exhortations  (Xoyoi  Trpor/aeTrrt/cot)  of  later 
philosophers.4  Some  quotations  from  the  lost  works  are  pre- 
served in  later  compilations,  especially  in  those  made  by  Sto- 
baeus  and  John  of  Damascene,  the  latter  placing  the  sayings  of 
the  philosophers  and  of  the  Doctors  of  the  Church  in  parallel 
columns. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


The  Greek  School  System. 

i.  The  educational  institutions  of  ancient  Greece  were,  with 
few  exceptions,  not  systematized,  and  the  schools  were  private 
foundations  with  the  most  meagre  appointments.  The  teachers 
of  reading  and  writing  set  up  their  schools  in  booths  and  huts, 
frequently  even  in  the  streets  and  the  market  place,  and  loafers 

1  Arist.,  Pol.,  VII,  2,  p.  1337. 

2  Diog.  Laert.,  Prooem.,  §9. 

3  Ibid.,  VII,  §4. 

4  Cf.  the  list  of  educational  writings  in  Grassberger,  1.  c.,  II,  pp.  10  ff. 


142  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

could  at  any  time,  as  Theophrastus  describes  it  in  his  Char- 
acters^ disturb  them  at  their  work.  The  profession  of  the  gram- 
mar teacher  was  held  in  low  repute,  and  it  was  proverbial  to 
say  of  one  who  had  disappeared,  "He  either  died  or  is  gone  to 
be  a  schoolmaster."  Freedmen  and  slaves  often  conducted 
schools.  In  the  homes  of  the  wealthy,  slaves  taught  the  ele- 
ments; and  slaves  (the  rraiSayoryoi)  were  generally  appointed 
to  watch  over  the  school-boys  and  to  assist  them  in  their  lessons. 
If  a  slave  was  unfit  for  other  work  he  was  generally  entrusted 
with  this  office:  a  slave  fell  from  a  tree  while  picking  fruit  and 
broke  his  leg,  whereupon  the  master  remarked,  "He  has  now 
advanced  to  the  office  of  a  pedagogue."  The  music  schools 
were  distinct  from  the  elementary  schools  and  were  of  higher 
rank;  occasionally,  statues  of  Apollo  and  Athene  graced  their 
halls.  The  State  contented  itself  with  passing  a  few  general 
laws.  Athens  limited  the  number  of  boys  who  were  permitted 
to  be  at  school  at  one  and  the  same  time  and  appointed  the 
opening  hour  for  the  schools."  Some  laws  were  also  passed 
concerning  the  teaching  matter:  at  the  time  of  the  Archon 
Euclid  the  State  introduced  the  Ionic  alphabet;  and  the  parents 
were  obliged  to  have  their  children  receive  a  certain  amount  of 
liberal  and  gymnastic  training.3  The  legislation  of  Charondas 
is  the  only  case  or\  record  where  the  State  provided  for  elemen- 
tary education.  Charondas  ordained  that  all  sons  of  citizens 
be  taught  to  write,  and  that  the  State  employ  and  pay  the 
teachers  of  the  poor.4  All  the  schools  of  Sparta  were  controlled 
by  the  State,  and  the  rigorous  censorship  of  music  exercised  in 
that  country  by  the  ephors,  which  prevented  the  introduction 
of  new  melodies,  naturally  influenced  the  musical  training  in 
the  schools. 

The  municipalities  provided  better  than  the  State,  not  only 
for  concerts,  plays,  and  other  public  entertainments,  but  also 
for  gymnastic  training.  Each  city  had  its  own  gymnasium, 
and  Athens  boasted  several.  These  gymnasiums  were  furnished 
with  the  necessary  apparatus  for  physical  culture,  and  were 
surrounded  by  extensive  parks  and  spacious  halls.  Long,  shady 

1  Gaisford,  1.  c.,  No.  121. 

2  Aesch.,  Timarch.,  9. 

3  Plato,  Cr/V.,  p.  50. 

4  Diod.,    XII,    12.     Grafenhahn    (Geschichte   der   Philologie    im    Altertum, 
I,  p.  67)  and  Ussing  (!•  c.)  refuse  to  accept  the  statement  of  Diodorus,  because 
it  is  the  one  solitary  case  on  record.      But  we  must  consider  that  it  is  not  a 
question  of  a  state  system  of  schools,  but  merely  a  form  of  state  aid  to  the  poor. 


THE  GREEK  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  143 

avenues  ran  through  these  parks,  and  both  the  latter  and  the 
halls  were  adorned  with  statues  of  gods  and  national  heroes. 
Thus  there  was  ample  opportunity  for  social  intercourse  and 
recreation.  The  physical  instruction  and  exercise  of  the  adults 
were  supervised  by  the  directors,  and  these  in  turn  were  subject, 
with  the  whole  of  the  gymnasium,  to  the  Sophronists.  The 
Gymnasiarchs,  whose  office  was  held  in  turn  by  the  wealthiest 
citizens,  arranged  the  athletic  games  and  other  celebrations. 
In  Athens,  the  Solonic  laws  regulated  the  matters  pertaining 
to  the  attendance  and  supervision  of  the  gymnasiums.  The 
halls  of  the  gymnasiums  were  popular  meeting-places  for  social 
and  intellectual  intercourse;  it  was  here  that  the  philosophers 
delivered  their  lectures,  and  to  attend  the  latter  was  considered 
an  elegant  occupation  of  one's  leisure  (0-^0X17).  Plato  and  his 
successors  lectured  in  the  Academy,  which  was  sacred  to  Athene 
and  which  had  been  named  after  Academes,  the  hero  of  Attica. 
Plato's  pupils  placed  a  statue  of  their  master  in  the  temple 
dedicated  to  the  Muses,  which  had  been  built  in  the  plane  grove 
adjoining  the  Academy.  Aristotle  and  his  successors  lectured 
in  the  covered  walks  of  the  Lyceum,  which  was  dedicated  to 
Apollo.  The  Cynics  frequented  the  gymnasium  which  was  sa- 
cred to  the  memory  of  Hercules,  and  which  had  been  named 
Cynosarges  because  it  was  originally  intended  for  the  use  of 
such  youth  as  could  not  claim  the  full  rights  of  citizenship.1 
All  these  institutions  were  sometimes  called  palaestra,  with  the 
connotation  that  their  service  to  the  mind  was  similar  to  the 
effects  of  athletics  on  the  body.2 

2.  The  philosophy  schools  were  generally  free  associations  of 
youths  who,  eager  for  knowledge,  would  crowd  about  a  master. 
It  is  probable  that  a  certain  amount  of  knowledge  had  to  be 
mastered  by  the  pupil  before  he  was  admitted — in  the  well- 
known  inscription  Plato  refused  to  admit  those  not  versed  in 
mathematics3 — but  no  compensation  was  asked  for  the  instruc- 
tion. The  continuity  of  the  school  was  preserved  by  the  teach- 
ing and  the  regular  succession  of  headmasters  (scholarchs). 
Theophrastus  and  Epicurus  willed  some  real  estate  to  their  suc- 
cessors,4 and  this  marks  the  beginning  of  securing^material 
assistance  for  the  schools.  Pythagoras'  schools  alone^enjoyed 

1  Ussing,  1.  c.,  pp.  135  ff. 

2  Cf.  Longinus,  4,  4:    fZevoQ&v  Kal  liXdrwv  £K  rrjs  Sw/cpdrovs  6vres  TraXa/trrpas. 

3  Mi/Seis  Ayeufj-tTpriTos  dfflrw  ftov  T^V  <n^t\v.     TzetZ.   Chil.,    8,    972,    turned  Jnto 
verse  by  the  reporter. 

4  Diog.  Laert.,  V,  §  52  and  X,  §  17. 


144  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

a  more  systematic  organization,  and  they  have  been  justly 
compared  to  the  temple  schools  of  Egypt.  But  they  found  no 
favor  with  the  people  at  large;  their  foreign  character  brought 
them  under  suspicion,  and  Pythagoras  lived  to  see  his  school 
at  Croton  suppressed  by  the  government.  The  hostility  dis- 
played by  the  State  against  Socrates  also  shows  plainly  that 
the  Greek  governments  were  suspicious  of  any  attempts  made 
by  a  teacher  to  produce  more  lasting  results.  As  late  as  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century  there  was  a  conflict  in  Athens  between 
the  State  and  the  philosophy  schools.  The  demagogue  Soph- 
ocles had  a  measure  passed  prohibiting  the  philosophers  to  open 
a  school  without  having  previously  obtained  the  permission  of 
the  council  and  people,  whereupon  all  the  philosophers,  the 
successor  of  Aristotle,  Theophrastus,  included,  left  the  city  and 
returned  only  after  the  measure  had  been  repealed  and  its  author 
punished  for  his  illegal  attempt.1 

A  middle  position  between  the  philosophy  schools  and  the 
lower  schools  was  occupied  by  the  rhetoric  and  grammar  schools, 
which  had  become  common  since  Isocrates.  They  were  not 
'controlled  by  the  State,  but  were  pay  schools.  Rhetoric  and 
grammar  could  and  should  have  been  taught  in  one  school, 
but  this  was  never  done.  After  having  learned  to  read  and 
write,  the  boys  attended  the  grammar  school,*  and  before  com- 
pleting the  grammar  course  they  were  frequently  admitted  to 
the  rhetoric  school.2  The  study  of  mathematics  also  was  not 
assigned  to  any  particular  age,  neither  did  it  require  any  pre- 
paratory work,  so  that  the  encyclopedic  studies  did  not  represent 
a  real  system  of  schooling  or  of  classes,  but  only  a  framework 
for  the  teaching  content. 

There  were  no  special  provisions  made  for  vocational  train- 
ing. Of  the  learned  professions,  the  priesthood,  indeed,  neces- 
sitated some  certain  knowledge,  but  this  was  not  imparted  in 
any  regular  school.  The  most  important  of  the  priestly  offices 
were  hereditary  and  thus  the  family  traditions  sufficed  to  pre- 
serve and  transmit  all  the  knowledge  required.  The  so-called 
e^yrjTcu,  /.  <?.,  interpreters  of  sacred  rites  and  customs,  seem 
also  to  have  instructed  the  candidates  for  the  priesthood.3  The 
associations  or  guilds  of  the  various  mechanical  professions  un- 
doubtedly provided  for  the  conservation  of  the  traditions  that 

1  Ibid.,  V,  §  38. 

2  Cf.  Quint.,  II,  i,  12  ff.,  who  approves  of  this  combination  of  studies. 

3  Christian  Petersen,  Ursprung  und  Auslegung  des  heiligen  Rechts  bei  den 
Griechen,  Philologus,  Suppl.  Bd.  I,  155-212. 


THE  GREEK  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  145 

belonged  to  their  respective  trades.1  It  is  mentioned  as  some- 
thing most  unusual  that  instruction  in  the  different  trades  was 
offered  in  Syracuse,  and  that  the  "sciences  of  the  slaves"  were 
thus  made  the  subject-matter  of  formal  teaching.2 

3.  While  education  and  scientific  research  thus  refused,  in 
the  golden  age  of  Greek  history,  to  be  bound,  as  it  were,  by 
hard  and  fast  forms,  they  submitted  to  these  in  the  Alexandrian 
age.  In  the  latter  period  they  were  represented  chiefly  by  the 
Museum  of  Alexandria,  which  was  truly  magnificent  in  its  kind, 
and  which,  while  devoted  to  research  and  teaching,  was  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  oldest  learning.  It  had  been  founded 
in  322  by  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  and  in  its  spacious  and  splendid 
halls  it  harbored  as  many  as  one  hundred  savants.  These 
savants  were  governed  by  the  te/aev9,  the  priest  of  the  Muses, 
whose  office  was  somewhat  like  that  of  the  chancellor  of  the 
modern  university.  The  librarian  was  next  in  dignity,  and  the 
different  schools  of  philosophy  as  well  as  the  representatives  of 
the  various  sciences  had  their  own  deans.  The  institution  was 
richly  endowed.  The  members  received  bed  and  board  free  and 
an  annual  salary  besides  from  the  State.  The  large  and  valu- 
able library,  which  contained  not  only  Greek  but  also  oriental 
works,  was  placed  at  their  service  along  with  the  astronomical 
and  physical  apparatus,  the  medical  research  laboratories,  the 
botanical  garden,  the  menagerie,  etc.  The  State  employed  copy- 
ists for  reproducing  the  works  written  by  members  of  the 
Museum.  To  have  on  hand  an  ample  supply  of  writing  mate- 
rial, a  royal  order  forbade  the  export  of  papyrus.  Much  care 
was  given  even  to  the  format  of  the  books  published.  It  can 
not  be  ascertained  whether  the  savants  were  obliged  to  be 
actively  engaged  in  teaching,  yet  it  is  known  that  large  numbers 
of  pupils  frequented  the  galleries  of  the  courtyard  where  the 
savants  delivered  lectures.  The  free  and  unconvential  methods 
of  study  are  reminiscent  of  the  Greek  philosophy  schools.  But 
the  collegiate  life  of  the  savants,  their  being  divided  into  differ- 
ent colleges,  the  supreme  control  by  a  priest,  and  the  internal 
organization  of  the  institution,  these  features  are  copied  from 
the  temple  schools  of  Egypt,  whose  influence  in  this  regard 
was  as  strong  as  the  influence  in  general  of  the  literary  treasures 
of  Egypt  upon  the  development  of  Alexandrian  polymathy. 
The  historical  importance  of  the  Museum  can  not  be  over- 


1  Boeckh,  1.  c.,  p.  397. 

2  Arlst.,  Pol.,  I,  7,  p.  1255. 

10 


146  GREEK  EDUCATION. 

estimated.  It  encouraged  scientific  research  and  formulated  the 
content  of  the  higher  learning;  and  because  it  continued  to 
flourish  during  the  age  of  the  Roman  emperors,  it  proved  the 
model  for  all  similar  foundations,  though  no  other  institution 
ever  approached  its  magnificence.1 

The  savants  whom  the  Attalids  had  assembled  in  Perga- 
mum,  rivalled  those  of  Alexandria.  It  is  not  certain  that  the 
Kv/cXot  Hepyafirjvoi,  were  organized  along  the  lines  of  the  Mu- 
seum of  Alexandria,  but  we  know  that  the  savants  received  all 
possible  aid.  The  library,  founded  by  Eumenes  II.,  was  almost 
as  large  as  that  of  Alexandria.  To  obtain  sufficient  writing- 
material,  the  manufacture  of  parchment — which  has  received  its 
name  from  Pergamum — was  introduced.  Attalus  III.  added  a 
botanical  garden.2  The  savants  of  Pergamum  were  instrumen- 
tal, through  their  connection  with  the  West,  in  importing  the 
elements  of  Greek  learning  into  Rome.  The  Seleucidae  who  set 
up  their  capitals  in  the  old  centres  of  civilization,  Nineveh  and 
Babylon,  also  encouraged  education.  At  the  court  of  Antiochus 
in  Antioch  there  existed  a  famous  school  of  rhetoric  and  a  large 
library,  and  many  savants  took  up  their  residence  there;  ele- 
ments of  Greek  culture  were  carried  from  here  into  Persia  and 
India. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  capitals  that  were  the  seats  of  ex- 
tensive and  organized  studies,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  fame 
enjoyed  by  the  city  of  Tarsus,  of  which  Strabo  writes:  "The 
Tarsians  display  such  a  love  of  philosophy  and  other  Greek 
•  studies  as  to  surpass  even  Athens,  Alexandria,  and  every  other 
place  where  philosophers  have  ever  taught.  The  only  differ- 
ence is  that  the  students  and  teachers  are  all  natives,  foreigners 
rarely  coming  to  the  schools  of  Tarsus,  while  other  places  boast 
more  foreigners  than  natives:  witness  Alexandria  whose  schools 
are  fille4  with  foreigners,  while  the  Alexandrians  go  abroad  to 
study."  It  was  in  Tarsus  that  St.  Paul  received  his  Greek 
education.  Dionysius  Longinus  numbers  him  among  the  Greek 
orators,  and  the  Apostle  quotes  Greek  poets  on  several  occasions.4 

1  Parthey,  Das  alexandrinische  Museum,  Berlin,  1838. 

2  Grafenhahn,  1.  c.,  I,  pp.  410  ff. 

3  Strabo,  XIV,  p.  673. 

4  Tit.  I,  12:  "One  of  them,  a  prophet  of  their  own,  said,  The  Cretans  are 
always  liars,  evil  beasts,  slothful  bellies."     I.  Cor.  XV,  33:  "Be  not  seduced: 
Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners."     Acts  XVII,  28:   "For  in   him 
we  live,  and  move,  and  are;  as  some  also  of  your  own  poets  said:  For  we  are 
also  his  offspring, "  quoted  from  Aratos'  poem  on  astronomy. 


IV. 

*< 

ROMAN  EDUCATION. 

\ 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Content  of  Roman  Education. 

i.  Roman  education  must  be  traced,  like  that  of  the  Greeks, 
to  priestly  origins.  The  first  teachers  of  the  Romans  were  the , 
older  Etrurians,  who  had  a  priestly  literature  in  the  sacred 
Books  of  Tages;  and  as  late  as  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  the 
Roman  youth  received  their  higher  education  from  Etrurian 
priests.1  The  Books  of  Tages  contained  the  ceremonies  prac- 
ticed by  the  Roman  augurs;  and  they  were  repeatedly  annotated, 
e.  g.y  by  the  Etrurian  Tarquitius  and  the  jurist  Labeo,  the  con- 
temporary of  Augustus.  They  treated  also  of  the  worship  of 
the  gods,  of  natural  history,  and  of  the  world-ages.2  There  is  a 
slight  similarity  between  the  Books  of  Tages  and  the  Vedic 
and  Hermetic  books.  However,  the  Romans  drew  upon  them 
only  for  their  divinations,  their  haruspicy  and  ritual.3  The 
practice  of  teaching  the  priestly  sciences  was  never  discontinued 
in  Rome,  and  all  men  in  public  office  were  expected  to  be  fa- 
miliar with  the  theologia  civilis,  as  distinct,  according  to  the 
Greek  division,  from  the  theologia  fabulos  a  of  the  poets,  and  the 
theologia  naturalis  of  the  philosophers.4  Julius  Caesar  wrote  a 
book  on  the  auguries,  and  the  familiarity  with  haruspicy  is 
mentioned  among  the  attainments  of  an  educated  man  of  the 
period  of  the  Empire.5 

However,  the  educational  element  represented  by  the  serious 
wisdom  of  the  Etrurians  had  to  give  way  before  the  flood  of 
new  ideas  pouring  in  when  Greek  education  was  introduced. 
Greek  education  was  engrafted  upon  Roman  life,  its  sap  entered 

1  Liv.,  IX,  36:  "Habeo  auctores,  vulgo  turn  Romanes  pueros,  sicut  nunc 
Graecis,  ita  Etruscis  litteris  erudiri  solitos. " 

^  Diod.,  V,  40:  ypdfjLfj.aTa  8t  Kal  <f>v<rio\oylav  /cai  OeoXoylav  ^TTI  ir\4ov. 

3  On  this  subject  cf.  Fr.  Creuzer,  Symbolik  und  Mythologie,  II,  pp.  819  ff. ; 
Bailey,  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Rome,  London,  1907;  Del  Mar,  The  Worship 
of  Augustus  Casar,  New  York,  1899. 

4  Boeckh,  1.  c.,  p.  290;  August.,  De  Civitate  Dei,  VI,  5. 

5  Krause,  1.  c.,  p.  368,  footnote  3. 

147 


148  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 

into  Roman  civilization,  and  produced  a  fruit  of  a  mixed 
character.  Roman  education  is  the  fruit,  not  of  the  national 
civilization,  but  of  the  assimilation  of  the  latter  with  a  foreign 
and  complete  system  of  education.  This  is  the  first  authenti- 
cated case  for  the  path  of  education  to  lead  through  a  foreign 
language  and  a  foreign  literature.  It  was  therefore  natural 
that  language  and  the  art  of  language  meant  more  to  the  Ro- 
mans than  to  other  nations,  and  hence  it  is  not  surprising  that 
they  later  declared  grammar  to  be  the  mother  and  guide  of  all 
arts  and  sciences. 

Political  and  social  conditions  first  urged  the  Romans  to 
study  Greek,  and  only  after  the  second  Punic  War  did  cultural 
aims  influence  them  in  this  regard.  In  teaching  this  language, 
the  Greek  slaves  at  first  employed  the  natural  method  of  con- 
versation and  reading.  The  study  of  Greek  grammar  was  in- 
troduced by  Crates  of  Mallos,  who  had  come  to  Rome  in  159 
B.  C.  as  the  ambassador  of  King  Attalus  III.  and  was,  because 
of  an  accident,  detained  there  longer  than  he  intended.  While 
the  honor  to  have  introduced  Greek  grammar  to  Rome  thus 
belongs  to  the  grammar  school  of  Pergamus,  the  best  textbook 
for  the  subject  was  written  by  a  representative  of  the  school  of 
Alexandria,  Dionysius  Thrax  (see  supra  p.  130).  During  the 
period  of  the  Republic  the  study  of  Greek  remained  confined  to 
the  select  circle  of  the  literati,  and  only  in  the  beginning  of  the 
Empire,  and  even  then  for  only  a  short  time,  was  Greek  studied 
generally.  At  this  time  "the  children  of  gentlemen  learnt  Greek 
before  they  learnt  Latin,  and  though  Quintilian  does  not  ap- 
prove of  a  boy's  learning  nothing  but  Greek  for  any  length  of 
time  (as  this  would  estrange  his  ear  from  the  mother-tongue), 
yet  he,  too,  recommends  that  a  boy  should  be  taught  Greek 
first,  and  Latin  afterwards." 

2.  After  the  grammatical  interest  had  been  awakened  and 
grown  strong  with  the  study  of  a  foreign  language  and  a  foreign 
grammar,  it  turned  necessarily  to  the  mother-tongue.  L.  Aelius 
Prseconius,  surnamed  Stilo,  "the  Quill  Driver,"  inaugurated 
the  scientific  study  of  Latin  by  interpreting  old  Latin  works 
and  instructing  his  friends,  Cicero,  Varro,  and  Lucilius.  His 
method  of  language-studies  soon  began  to  be  adopted  quite 
generally  in  the  schools.  Two  schoolmasters,  Q.  Remmius  Pa- 
laemon  and  M.  Valerius  Flaccus,  the  two  first  artis  scriptores  or 


1  Quint.,  I,  I,  12  sq.;  M.  Miiller,  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  New 
York,  1866,  I,  p.  1 01. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  149 

artilatores,  i.  ^.,  authors  of  school  grammars,  were  celebrated  in 
the  first  period  of  the  Empire.  But  grammar  was  far  from 
being  confined  to  the  schoolmasters,  'for  the  most  distinguished 
men  busied  themselves  with  questions  of  grammar.  Varro,  the 
greatest  savant  of  his  time,  composed  twenty-four  books  on  the 
Latin  language.  C.  Lucilius,  the  associate  of  the  statesmen 
Laelius  and  Scipio,  devoted  the  ninth  book  of  his  satires  to  the 
reform  of  spelling.  And  Caesar,  while  "fighting  the  barbarians 
of  Gaul  and  Germany,  and  watching  from  a  distance  the  polit- 
ical complications  at  Rome,  ready  to  grasp  the  sceptre  of  the 
world,"1  was  busy  with  the  declensions  of  nouns  and  the  con- 
jugations of  verbs,  for  then  he  wrote  his  de  analogia  (i.  e.y  on 
grammatical  regularity  as  opposed  to  the  anomalia,  the  excep- 
tions and  irregularities) ;  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  term  ablative 
in  Latin.  The  Emperor  Claudius  attempted  to  add  new  char- 
acters to  the  alphabet  (for  the  sounds  of  v  and  ps  and  the  inter- 
mediate sound  of  i  and  u);  but  his  innovations  were  rejected  by 
later  grammarians.2  This  zeal  for  grammatical  reform  was  fre- 
quently born  of  mere  vanity,  and  the  purists  made  some  egre- 
gious blunders  in  translating  the  categories  and  terminology  of 
the  Greek  grammar  into  Latin.3  Yet  with  many  it  was  the 
love  for  their  native  tongue  that  encouraged  them  to  discover 
in  it  order  and  regularity  and  to  improve  it  so  as  to  make  it 
worthy  of  the  greatness  of  the  Empire.  The  Roman  grammar- 
ians preserved  for  many  centuries  the  purity  of  the  Latin 
sounds,  checked  the  inroads  of  Grsecisms,  and  conserved  the 
language  in  its  native  purity  while  it  was  being  spoken  by  the 
barbarians  of  all  races.  To  them  are  the  peoples  that  inherited 
the  culture  of  Rome  indebted  for  the  well-elaborated  system  of 
grammar,  which  is  an  invaluable  instrument  of  mental  discipline 
and  a  model  for  treating  the  native  tongues. 

The  character  of  Roman  education,  derived  as  it  was  from 
the  Greeks,  gave  an  impulse  to  the  study  of  rhetoric  also,  and 
among  the  Romans  rhetoric  was  considered  of  the  same  im- 

1  M.  Miiller,  1.  c.,  p.  lie. 

2  Boeckh,  1.  c.,  p.  740. 

3  The  Latin  "genitivus"-  is  a  mere  blunder,   for   the  Greek   word  yeviic/i 
could  never  mean  "genitivus."  "Genitivus,"  if  it  is  meant  to  express  the  case 
of  origin  or  birth,  would  in  Greek  have  been  called  yevvijriK^,  not  yeviic/i.    (M. 
Miiller,  1.  c.,  p.  1 12.)    In  the  same  way  the  Latin  "accusativus"  for  the  fou/th 
case  (Varro  has  "casus  accusandi")  expresses  an  act  of  accusing  that  is  foreign 
to  the  Greek  a/ricm/ci),  ;'.  e.,  the  case  of  cause  or  reason,  and  fails  to  "bring  out 
the  basic  relationship  of  the  case;  cf.  Trendelenburg,  Act.  soc.  Gr.  Lips.,  I, 
p.  119. 


150  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 

portance  as  grammar.  Because  of  its  practical  importance  for 
public  life,  oratory  had  been  esteemed  even  in  early  times,  but 
as  an  art  it  was  cultivated  only  after  the  introduction  of  Greek 
education,  when  the  mastery  of  the  word  was  prized  not  only 
for  its  practical  usefulness  to  the  statesman  and  the  jurist,  but 
also  as  a  means  for  rounding  off.  the  intellectual  life  and  for 
developing  one's  personality.  The  foreign  language  had  again 
to  supply  the  materials  for  the  new  art.  Cicero,  Pompey, 
Antony,  and  Augustus  "declaimed"  in  Greek  before  they  de- 
livered orations  in  their  mother-tongue,  and  the  first  rhetoric 
schools  in  Rome  were  Greek.  L.  Plotius  Gallus  was  the  first  to 
open  (c.  90  B.  C.)  a  school  for  Roman  oratory,  but  he  was  op- 
posed not  only  by  the  Roman  patriots,  but  also  by  the  state- 
orators,  who  recognized  the  value  of  a  thorough  training.1  But 
after  Cicero  had  proved  himself  equal  to  the  Greek  orators, 
the  opposition  to  Roman  oratory  died  out,  even  if  Cicero  did 
not  continue  to  enjoy  undisputed  sway,  as  the  rhetoricians  of 
the  period  of  Adrian  and  the  Antonines  regarded  the  earlier 
Roman  orators  as  their  models.2  The  art  of  oratory  was  re- 
garded as  the  capstone  in  the  education  of  the  young  Roman, 
and  for  this  reason  Quintilian  incorporated  his  system  of  peda- 
gogy into  his  textbook  of  oratory. 

3.  Though  the  educational  value  of  grammar  and  rhetoric 
was  rated  highly  by  the  Romans,  yet  these  disciplines  were  bf 
too  formal  a  nature  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  education.  In  the 
early  times  this  basis  consisted  in  the  songs  of  the  national 
heroes,  which  were  learned  by  heart  at  school  and  which  were 
sung  at  the  feasts  by  young  and  old.3  Beside  these  songs,  the 
young  had  to  memorize  the  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  and  this 
practice  still  obtained  in  the  boyhood  days  of  Cicero.  The 
sayings  of  Pythagoras,  as  compiled  in  a  poem  by  Claudius 
Csecus  (c.  300),  were  the  first  attempt  to  use  foreign  materials 
for  the  same  purpose.  But  the  Odyssia^  written  by  Livius  An- 
dronicus,  a  freedman  of  Tarentum,  who  taught  grammar  in 
Rome  about  240  B.  C.,  must  be  considered  the  first  real  text- 
book. It  was  used  in  the  schools  till  the  time  of  Augustus, 
though  its  antique  style  and  form — it  was  written  in  the  old 
Saturnian  verse — had  rendered  it  obsolete  long  before.  Fifty 
years  after  Andronicus  a  rival  arose  in  the  person  of  the  half- 

1  Suet.,  de  clans  rhet.,  I  sq. 

2  Eckstein   in   Schmid,   Enzyklopadie,   s.  v.   Lateinische   Sprache,    1st  ed., 
XI,  498- 

3  Ussing,  1.  c.,  p.  129,  expresses  a  doubt  about  this. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 

Greek,  Q,  Ennius  of  Campania,  who  in  his  Annals  treated  the 
history  of  Rome  in  the  manner  and,  verse  of  Homer.  Both 
these  works  were  superseded  in  the  schools  by  the  poetry  of 
Vergil,  who  began  to  be  read  in  the  schools  even  during  his 
lifetime,  chiefly  through  the  efforts  of  the  grammarian,  Q.  Caeci- 
lius  Epirota.  Horace,  too,  was  read  in  the  schools  at  an  early 
time.  In  the  beginning  of  the  Empire  the  poets  strove  to  be 
read  by  the  young;  and  Horace  considers  the  education  of  the 
young  to  be  the  sublimest  mission  of  the  poet,  for  he  says: 

"His  lessons  form  the  child's  young  lips,  and  wean 
The  boyish  ear  from  words  and  tales  unclean; 
As  years  roll  on,  he  moulds  the  ripening  mind, 
And  makes  it  just  and  generous,  sweet  and  kind; 
He  tells  of  worthy  precedents,  displays 
The  example  of  the  past  to  after  days. "' 

Quintilian  is  likewise  of  the  opinion  that  the  modern  poets 
ought  to  be  read  first,  and  that  only  the  mature  should  take  up 
the  old  poets.  But  in  the  second  century  after  Christ  the  older 
writers  again  obtained  the  precedence,  and  for  a  time  Vergil 
had  to  give  way  to  Ennius,  and  Cicero  to  Cato.2  Thus  various 
attempts  were  made  to  supply  the  Roman  world  with  what 
Homer  was  to  the  Greeks.  However,  even  if  Vergil  continued, 
almost  uninterruptedly,  to  enjoy  canonical  authority,  yet  he 
never  held  the  place  in  Rome  that  Homer  held  in  Greece,  and, 
owing  to  the  bilingual  character  of  Roman  education,  Homer 
was  generally  considered  just  as  important  as  he. 

After  the  school-authors,  the  writers  of  comedies  contributed 
most  towards  acquainting  the  Romans  with  the  new  education. 
The  sayings  of  Plautus  and  Terence  passed  into  proverbs;  their 
plays  gave  faithful  pictures  of  Greek  life,  and  familiarized  the 
Romans  with  the  philosophy  and  mythology  of  the  Greeks. 
Public  orations  and  recitations  were  also  a  cultural  factor,  and 
the  lawyer  with  a  fine  education  could  count,  because  of  the 
high  esteem  in  which  the  practice  of  law  was  ever  held  by  the 
Romans,  upon  a  powerful  educational  influence.  But  public 
recitations  of  poetry  were  never  so  popular  among  the  Romans 
as  among  the  Greeks.  Current  poetry  was,  indeed,  recited 
among  friends,  at  banquets,  or  at  the  baths,  which  custom  had 
been  introduced  by  the  orator  and  critic,  Asinius  Pollio.  But, 
though  these  recitations  may  have  evinced  the  desire  of  the 

1  Hor.,  Ep.y  II,  i,  126  ff.     (Conington's  translation). 

2  Eckstein,  1.  c.,  and  Hertz,  Renaissance  und  Rokoko  in  der  romischen  Li- 
teratur,  Berlin,  1865. 


152  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 

educated  Roman  to  devote  his  leisure  to  cultural  pursuits,  they 
were  a  far  cry  to  the  spirited  conferences  of  the  Greeks  from 
which  the  artistic  dialogues  of  Plato  developed.1 

4.  And  thus  only  grammar  and'rhetoric,  of  the  encyclopedic 
studies  of  the  Greeks,  found  full  acceptance  with  the  Romans, 
their  practical  turn  of  mind  making  them  suspicious  of  the 
other  branches.  The  didactic  writings  of  Cato  Censorius — 
"who  made  researches  into  the  whole  field  of  knowledge  and 
who  was  considered  a  past  master  in  the  learning  of  the  age" 
show  what  knowledge  appeared  most  important  to  a  Roman  of 
the  old  school.  Cato  contends  that  one  should  look  at  Greek 
literature,  but  not  learn  it  thoroughly,3  and  consistently  he  gave 
little  attention  to  the  full  educational  system  of  the  Greeks. 
Pythagorean  writings  were  probably  the  chief  source  for  the 
materials  of  his  Disttcha  de  Moribus,  and  his  rhetoric,  intended 
to  serve  the  needs  of  the  Roman  forum,  is  based  on  Thucydides 
and  Demosthenes.  His  Origines,  which  he  wrote  in  large  and 
clear  Betters  to  facilitate  its  reading  by  the  young,4  treats  the 
history  of  Rome.  His  other  works  deal  with  law,  medicine,  and 
the  science  of  war.  Cato  does  not  even  mention  the  mathe- 
matical sciences,  and  these  were,  in  fact,  relegated  at  the  time 
to  the  elementary  school,  where  much  time  was  devoted  to 
arithmetic.  In  his  own  day,  Cicero  found  the  Greeks  who  cul- 
tivated geometry  and  held  all  mathematicians  in  high  esteem, 
vastly  superior  in  this  regard  to  his  own  countrymen,  who 
studied  these  sciences  "merely  with  an  eye  to  the  profit  to  be 
derived  from  geometry  and  arithmetic. "  The  theory  of  music 
received  even  less  attention,  as  musical  performances  appeared 
unseemly  to  the  Roman.6  Astronomy,  however,  appealed  to 
him  for  its  usefulness  to  the  farmer  and  mariner  and  for  being 
a  storehouse  of  mythological  lore.  The  astronomical  poems  of 
Aratos  (Phenomena  and  Diosemeia)  were  frequently  translated, 
for  instance,  by  Cicero,  and  were  read  also  in  the  schools. 

The  cultural  value  of  the  mathematical  sciences  was  first 
recognized  in  M.  Terentius  Varro's  Libri  IX  Dtscip/inarum, 
which  embraced  the  entire  system  of  the  encyclopedic  studies, 

1  Krause,  1.  c.,  p.  305. 

2  Cicero,  de  orafore,  III,  33,  135. 

3  Plin.,  Hist,  nat.,  29,  i,  14:  "Bonum  illorum  litteras  inspicere  non  per- 
discere. " 

4  Plut.,  Cat.  Maj.,  2c. 

5  Tusc.y  I,  2,  5. 
6Nep.,  Ep.y  i. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  153 

and  which  remained  the  source  for  all  later  encyclopedias.  Varro 
went  beyond  the  seven  subjects  of  the  Greeks  by  adding  med- 
icine and  architecture,  for  which  innovation  the  old  Roman 
esteem  for  medicine  and  the  new  interest  in  architecture  must 
be  held  responsible.  Varro  was  a  many-sided  savant  and  the 
embodiment,  so  to  speak,xof  the  learning  of  the  last  days  of  the 
Republic.  He  treated  agriculture  and  civil  law  in  special  works, 
and  Roman  history  in  his  De  Vita  Populi  Romani  and  in  the 
Antiquitates  Rerum  Humanarum  et  Divinarum,  which  St.  Augus- 
tine praises  for  their  wealth  of  learning  and  depth  of  thought.1 
To  encourage  the  study  of  mathematics,  Varro  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  it  cannot  be  duly  appreciated  by  the  tyro: 
"Either  we  do  not  at  all  take  up  the  study  of  these  matters,  or 
we  leave  off  before  we  understand  the  reasons  for  their  real 
usefulness;  the  charm  as  well  as  the  usefulness  of  these  sciences 
is  experienced  only  when  we  have  gotten  beyond  the  elements 
(in  postprincipiis);  only  the  mastery  of  these  subjects  can  per- 
suade us  of  their  charm  and  usefulness,  while  the  elements  may 
appear  dry  and  useless."  Quintilian  is  fully  alive  to  the  cul- 
tural value  of  mathematics,  and  (following  Isocrates)  he  dis- 
covers many  points  in  its  favor:  it  occupies  the  mind,  sharpens 
the  intellect  and  makes  it  more  alert;  it  is  not  only  the  mastery, 
as  with  other  studies,  that  is  advantageous,  but  every  hour 
devoted  to  it  is  useful;  it  is  especially  useful  to  the  orator  in 
supplying  him  with  models  of  good  order  and  scientific  con- 
clusions, and  in  extending  his  field  of  knowledge.3  Surveying 
was  raised  to  a  vocational  study  when  Julius  Caesar  committed 
the  cadastral  survey  of  the  imperial  territory  to  Egyptian  sur- 
veyors. The  literature  of  this  science — Julius  Frontinus  (c.  74 
A.D.)  was  the  first  gromatic4 — subsequently  assumed  vast  pro- 
portions and  exercised  a  great  influence  on  the  schools  of  the 
Middle  Ages.5  Roman  education  assimilated,  to  a  certain  de- 
gree, this  branch  of  mathematics,  and  the  encyclopedias  of  the 
later  Empire  invariably  treat  of  mathematical  topics. 

5.  The  compendiums  which  comprised  within  small  compass 
whatever  seemed  most  noteworthy,  illustrate  the  tendency  of 
Roman  educators  to  serve  ,  practical  needs  and  to  economize 
time.  In  the  beginning  of  the  Empire,  A.  Cornelius  Celsus 

1  De  civ.  Dei,  VI,  2. 

2  Cell.,  N.  A.,  1 6,  1 8. 

3  Quint.,  Inst.,  I,  I,  34  sq. 

4  The  term  is  probably  a  corruption  of  yvAfuav. 

5  Cf.  Werner,  Gerbert  von  Aurillac,  Vienna,  1878,  p.  74. 


154  ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

wrote  a  compendium  in  which  he  treated  oratory,  ethics,  juris- 
prudence, military  science,  agriculture,  and  medicine.  His  work 
was  probably  entitled  Cesti,  from  the  Greek  /ceord?,  stitched, 
embroidered  (used  especially  of  the  girdle  of  Venus),  connoting, 
therefore,  that  the  book  purported  to  be  an  attractive  treatment 
of  various  subjects.  However,  only  eight  books  of  the  medical 
section — Celsus  medicorum  Cicero — have  come  down  to  us.  In 
the  age  of  the  Antonines,  the  Neoplatonist  L.  Apuleius,  the 
father  of  African  Latinity,  wrote  compendiums  of  rhetoric,  dia- 
lectic, and  the  mathematical  sciences;  but  only  the  textbook 
of  dialectic,  De  Dogmate  Platonis,  has  been  preserved.1  His 
countryman,  Marcianus  Cappella,  also  a  Neoplatonist,  has 
reaped  high,  though  ill-merited,  honors  as  the  author  (c.  410- 
427)  of  the  encyclopedia  that  was  the  most  widely  used  text- 
book of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  first  two  books  of  his  Satiricon 
Libri  IX  describe  the  marriage  of  Mercury  and  Philology; 
upon  which  occasion  Mercury  introduces  to  his  bride  the  seven 
liberal  arts  as  her  maids,  whereupon  each  of  these  describes  the 
content  of  her  respective  science  or  art.  However,  the  execution 
of  the  plan  is  spiritless  and  out  of  harmony  with  the  brilliant 
setting.  Medicine  and  architecture  are  mentioned  among  the 
maids  of  Philology,  but  are  not  introduced  as  speakers.2  St.  Au- 
gustine had  begun,  while  still  a  teacher  of  rhetoric,  to  write  an 
encyclopedia,  but  did  not  get  beyond  grammar  and  music,  and 
scarcely  touched  upon  rhetoric,  geometry,  arithmetic,  and  phi- 
losophy.3 Cassiodorus,  the  contemporary  of  Theodoric,  covered 
the  entire  field  of  education  in  his  work,  De  Artibus  ac  Disci- 
plinis  Liberalium  Artium^  which  he  wrote  for  the  training  of 
the  clergy.  Many  other  writers  treated  matters  taken  from 
the  different  sciences  without  adhering,  however,  to  the  Greek 
system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts,  while  some  followed  no  plan 
whatsoever  in  their  compilations.  The  Natural  History  of  Pliny 
the  Elder  contains,  in  its  37  books,  extracts  from  more  than 
2,000  writers  on  astronomy,  geography,  anthropology,  zoology, 
botany,  medicine,  mineralogy,  metallurgy,  and  history  of  art. 
This  History  is  aptly  described  by  Pliny  the  Younger  as  an 
"opus  diffusum,  eruditum,  nee  minus  varium  quam  ipsa  na- 
tura,  "4  and  it  will  ever  remain  a  monument  to  the  industry  of 

1  Jahn,  Ueber  romische  Enzyklopadien  in  den    Ber.  d.  Konigl.  sacks.  Gesell- 
schaft  der  Wissenschaften,  Phil.-hist.  Klasse,  II,  1856,  263-287. 

2  Ebert,  Geschichte  der  christlichen  Literatur,  Leipzig,  1874,  I,  p.  459. 

3  August.,  Retract.,  I,  6. 

4  Plin.,  £/>.,  Ill,  5. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  155 

its  author  and  an  inexhaustible  storehouse  of  anecdotes.  A. 
Gellius,  the  author  of  the  Attic  Nights,  which  he  wrote  for  the 
instruction  and  entertainment  of  his  children,  is  a  representative 
of  those  compilers  who,  while  following  no  system  in  their  work, 
yet  succeeded  in  amassing  a  wealth  of  information  as  well  as  in 
making  it  accessible  to  others.  The  didactic  purpose  of  many 
similar  works  appears  from  the  introduction,  wherein  the  work 
is  dedicated  to  a  friend  or  a  son — a  custom  of  Roman  authors 
which  was  not  borrowed  from  the  Greeks,  but  which  can  be 
traced  to  Cato.  Many  textbooks  were  thus  written  for  indi- 
vidual needs,  and  they  form  a  special  department  of  Roman 
literature. 

6.  The  Romans  inclined  more  to  philology  and  polymathy 
than  to  philosophy,  and  they  accomplished  little  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  philosophy.  Pure  speculation  had  little  attraction 
for  the  practical  Roman,  the  man  of  war  and  action,  yet  he 
availed  himself  of  the  services  of  philosophy  for  the  purpose  of 
increasing  his  knowledge  and  of  developing  his  mental  faculties. 
The  statement  of  Ennius,  "  Philosophari  est  mihi  necesse,  at 
panels,  nam  omnino  haud placet,"1  expresses  the  subjective  and 
eclectic  attitude  of  the  educated  Roman  toward  philosophy, 
for  even  if  Cicero  and  Seneca  did  not  content  themselves  with 
a  smattering  of  the  subject,  still  self-enjoyment  was  the  prin- 
cipal motive  of  their  speculation.  Cicero  was  moreover  ambi- 
tious to  try  the  powers  of  his  native  tongue  on  the  abstract 
materials,  and  though  Varro  had  taught  dialectic  "to  converse 
in  Latin,"  it  was  Cicero  who  inaugurated  the  use  of  Latin  phil- 
osophical terms,  a  fact  that  was  to  have  far-reaching  effects  in 
after  times.2  The  study  of  philosophy  is  also  largely  responsible 
for  the  high  stage  of  development  attained  by  Roman  juris- 
prudence, for  jurisprudence  is  indebted  to  philosophy,  not  only 
for  its  first  principles,  but  also  for  its  perfection  of  logical  form, 
which  rendered  it  fully  equal  as  a  work  of  intellectual  art  to  the 
mathematics  of  the  Greeks.3  The  founders  of  the  Neopythag- 
orean  and  the  Neoplatonic  systems  also  drew  largely  upon 
Roman  philosophy,  e.  g.,  the  learned  mystic  Nigidius  Figulus 
and  the  Sextii.  Here  the  history  of  philosophy  repeats  itself: 


1  Cic.,  Tusc.y  II,  I,  i;  cf.  de  or.,  II,  37,  156;  Rep.,  I,  18. 

2  Willmann,   Geschichte  des  Idealismus,   2nd  ed.,   Braunschweig,   1907,   I, 
41  ff;  Eucken,  Geschichte  der  philosophischen  Terminologie,  Leipzig,  1878,  pp. 
52  ff.     However,  Prantl,  Geschichte  der  Logik  (I,  p.  512)  takes  a  less  favorable 
view  of  Cicero's  terminology. 

3  Boeckh,  1.  c.,  p.  705. 


156  ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

as  formerly  in  Greece  so  now  in  Rome  philosophy  returned  to 
theology,  whence  it  had  first  proceeded.  This  circumstance 
explains  the  interest  which  the  Romans  at  that  time  took  in 
the  mysteries.  This  interest  certainly  betokened  more  than  a 
mere  hankering  after  the  wonderful  and  the  occult,  or  an  af- 
fected air  of  mysteriousness.  "The  shallow  mind,"  says  Fr. 
Creuzer,  "was  satisfied  with  the  glamor  of  the  garish  gods  of 
mythology,  but  the  man  of  deeper  mind  sought  an  answer  to 
his  anxious  questions  and  rest  for  his  weary  heart  in  the  sacred 
mysteries.  In  the  midst  of  a  dark  and  dreary  world  these 
mysteries  appeared  to  the  Roman  as  a  place  of  refuge,  as  an 
oasis  in  the  desert,  where  he  found  rest  and  peace." 

Thus  all  the  essential  elements  of  Greek  education  find  a 
home  in  Roman  education.  But  the  results  of  this  assimilation 
of  foreign  elements  compare  unfavorably  with  the  development 
of  the  original  content  of  Greek  culture.  In  their  education 
the  Romans  lack  the  proper  foundation:  they  possess  no  literary 
work,  created  in  the  olden  days,  revered  and  esteemed  as  an 
oracle  by  the  nation  at  large,  and  interwoven  with  its  very  fibre. 
Instead,  we  see  the  Greek  schoolmaster  attempting  to  supply 
both  the  literature  and  the  subject-matter  of  teaching.  There 
is,  furthermore,  no  harmonious  co-operation  between  poetry 
and  science  in  order  to  produce  the  art  of  language  and  its 
theory.  Instead,  theory  develops  prematurely  at  the  expense  of 
art,  and  hence  the  mind  is  first  taken  up  with  form  rather  than 
with  content.  Finally,  Greek  polymathy  transferred  to  Roman 
soil,  gains  rapidly  in  extent,  but,  lacking  philosophy,  it  lacks 
unity;  and  while  the  Roman  philosophers  were  eclectics,  the 
system  of  education  had  to  serve  the  purely  practical  and  useful. 
But  with  all  these  defects,  the  form  that  Rome  gave  to  the 
content  of  Greek  education  was  best  adapted  for  spreading  as 
well  as  for  conserving  Greek  culture.  The  Mediterranean  and 
Northern  peoples  could  not  be  properly  introduced  to  the  cul- 
ture of  the  ancients  before  this  culture  had  assumed  the  form 
of  practical  sciences  instead  of  its  original  spiritualized  fullness. 
The  rules  of  Donatus'  grammar  were  more  useful  in  the  process 
of  assimilation  than  the  Stoics'  philosophy  of  language  or  the 
Homeric  criticism  of  the  Aristarchs  of  Alexandria.  Again,  the 
art  of  oratory,  allied  with  jurisprudence,  did  better  service  in 
this  connection  than  the  ethical  rhetoric  of  Isocrates;  and  great- 
er results  were  obtained  by  the  practical  and  expert  gromatists 

1  Creuzer,  Symbolik,  2nd.  ed.,  II,  p.  996. 


THE  ETHOS  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  .  157 

than  with  the  logico-architectonic  wisdom  of  Euclid.  Though 
the  content  of  Roman  education  appear  inorganic  and  unas- 
similated,  yet  it  entered .  deep  into  the  consciousness  of  the 
Roman  nation,  and  thus  the  great  nation  of  warriors  and  con- 
querors could  employ  it  as  the  instrument  for  the  intellectual 
assimilation  of  the  most  diverse  peoples,  and,  in  point  of  fact, 
it  proved  one  of  the  strongest  elements  in  holding  together  the 
nations  that  came  under  the  sway  of  the  Romans. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Ethos  of  Roman  Education. 

i.  Just  as  the  content  of  Greek  education  was  changed  and 
modified  by  being  transplanted  to  a  foreign  soil,  so  the  ideals, 
too,  of  Roman  educators  were  not  entirely  the  same  as  the 
educational  ideals  of  the  Greeks.  The  Romans  accepted  the 
distinct  difference  established  by  the  Greeks  between  liberal 
and  vocational  education;  and  the  terms:  artes  ingenues,  liberates, 
studio,  ingenua,  liberalia  are  faithful  renderings  of  the  corre- 
sponding Greek  terms.  However,  the  bonce  artes,  i.  <?.,  the  arts 
of  the  vir  bonus,  the  patriot  and  man  of  honor,  imply  something 
specifically  Roman.  But  in  Rome,  as  in  Greece,  the  liberal 
arts  are  regarded  as  an  elegant  occupation  of  one's  leisure,  as  a 
joy  and  an  ornament  of  life,  and  as  something  that  enters  deep 
into  one's  personality:  "Other  occupations  are  not  suited  to 
every  time,  nor  to  every  age  or  place;  but  these  studies  are  the 
food  of  youth,  the  delight  of  old  age;  the  ornament  of  pros- 
perity, the  refuge  and  comfort  of  adversity;  a  delight  at  home, 
and  no  hindrance  abroad;  they  are  companions  by  night,  and 
in  travel,  and  in  the  country."1  Still,  the  Roman  thought  it 
perfectly  compatible  with  the  liberal  character  of  cultural  stud- 
ies, that  they  should  fit  a  man  for  the  performance  of  certain 
duties.  He  insists  much  more  emphatically  than  the  Greek, 
that  the  mastery  of  language  be  the  net  profit  of  these  studies. 
" Linguas  edidicisse  duas"  belongs  to  the  " ingenuas  pectus  co- 
luisse  per  artes, " 2  and  the  power  of  oral,  secondarily  of  literary, 
expression  was  put  down  as  the  tangible  aim  of  the  varied  learn- 
ing and  teaching.  To  be  considered  an  educated  man,  it  is  not 

1  Cic.,  Pro  Arch.,  j. 

2  Ovid,  DC  Arte  Am.,  II,  121. 


158  ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

enough  to  have  pursued  certain  studies,  but  it  is  necessary  that 
one  be  able  to  "speak  and  write  intelligently  and  incisively  and 
with  nicety  on  a  subject."  Owing  to  the  close  relationship 
between  oratory  and  jurisprudence,  the  latter  was  also  con- 
sidered one  of  the  practical  aims  of  liberal  studies.  The  true 
juris consultus  is,  unlike  the  legulejus  (the  American  "shyster"), 
a  man  of  culture  and  refinement,  and  the  knowledge  of  law  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  also  indispensable  to  the  orator.2  After  the 
Emperors,  especially  Adrian,  had  introduced  the  class  of  state 
officials,  the  vocational  tendency  became  even  more  marked  in 
education,  and  the  demands  made  upon  the  government  officials 
controlled  henceforward  the  work  of  the  schools. 

Roman  writers  complain  occasionally  that  the  education  of 
the  young  and  the  methods  followed  in  the  schools  were  but  ill 
adapted  to  meet  the  demands  of  practical  life  and  were,  there- 
fore, worthless.  However,  we  must  be  on  our  guard  lest  we 
inject  a  meaning  into  their  words  that  was  foreign  to  the  writers' 
minds,  because  our  modern  conditions,  to  which  their  sayings 
are  often  applied,  are  entirely  different  from  those  obtaining  in 
ancient  Rome.  When  Seneca  pens  his  "Non  vita,  sed  scholce 
discimus!"  —  which  has  become  a  household  word  with  many 
and  the  shibboleth  of  all  "practical"  educationists — he  does  not 
wish  to  say  that  the  young  people  are  compelled  to  learn  mat- 
ters that  would  prove  useless  for  life.  But  his  contention  is 
that  no  studies  can  impart  the  wisdom  that  comes  of  the  ex- 
periences gained  in  life,  and  that  literary  affectation  is  not 
conducive  to  virtue.3  The  bitter  attack  made  by  Petronius  on 
the  rhetoric  schools  of  his  time  is  more  truly  reminiscent  of  .the 
present-day  complaint  of  the  divergency  between  school  and 
life.  "I  think,"  he  says,  "that  the  schools  stupefy  our  boys, 
for  there  they  hear  and  see  nothing  of  what  is  generally  useful." 

1  Corn.  Nep.  in  Suet.,  De  Illust.  Gramm.,  4:  "Litterati — qui  aliquid  dili- 
genter  et  acute  scienterque  possint  aut  dicere  aut  scribere. "  "Litteratus"  is 
the  translation   of  7/>aMAMtT«6j,  and  its  specific  meaning  is,  interpreter  of  liter- 
ary works.  "Litteratura"  is  the  Latin  for  ypa.fj./jLa.TiK'/i,  and  the  Latin   equiva- 
lent for  the  Greek  7paju/«»Tt<rr?}j  is  "litterator, "  elementary  teacher. 

2  Cic.,  De  Orat.,  I,  55,  236;  cf.  ibid.,  46,  202  and  Brut.,  49,  and  Quint., 
XII,  3. 

3  Sen.,  Ep.y  106  fin.     It  might  be  well  to  quote  the  context  of  the  much- 
abused  passage:  "Non  faciunt  bonos  ista" — the  subject  was  dialectical  sub- 
tleties— "sed  doctos;  apertior  res  est  sapere,  immo  simplicior,  paucis  est  ad 
mentem  bonam  uti  litteris:  sed  nos  ut  cetera  in  supervacuum  diffundimus, 
ita  philosophiam  ipsam;  quemadmodum  omnium  rerum,  sic  litterarum  quoque 
intemperantia  laboramus:  non  vitae,  sed  scholae  discimys.     Vale." 


THE  ETHOS  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  159 

And  after  giving  some  examples  of  vapid  rhetorical  exercises, 
he  adds,  "He  who  is  fed  on  such  foodstuffs  can  attain  to  the 
use  of  reason  as  little  as  he  who  lives  in  the  kitchen  can  breathe 
sweet  odors."  Just  like  Cato  in  his  caustic  witticism  about 
the  perennial  learning  how  to  speak,  without,  however,  getting 
one  inch  nearer  the  goal  of  being  actually  able  to  speak,»Petro- 
nius  here  refers  to  the  insipid  trash  of  counterfeit  rhetoric. 
But  in  attacking  the  abuse,  he  does  not  suggest  that  rhetoric 
should  be  banished  from  the  schools.  The  practical  value  of 
the  fari  posse  and  the  interest  in  the  art  of  language  were  too 
deeply  impressed  on  the  ancient  mind  to  permit  the  critic  to 
suggest  so  revolutionary  a  change  in  education.  The  Roman 
schools  were  in  the  essentials  never  out  of  touch  with  life,  even 
if  the  foreign  character  of  their  education  would  not  permit 
the  complete  harmony  between  theory  and  practice  as  had 
been  the  case  in  Greece  at  the  time  when  Attic  culture  was 
at  its  best. 

2.  In  keeping  with  the  high  value  that  the  Romans  attached 
to  practical  oratory,  they  recognized  a  distinction  between  prac- 
tical ability  (Fertigkeif)  and  theoretical  knowledge  (Kenntnis), 
which  two  factors  the  Greeks  considered  inseparably  united  in 
their  iraiSeia.  Eloquentia  was  the  element  of  practical  ability, 
and  eruditio  that  of  theoretical  knowledge.  The  Latin  eruditio 
is  not  co-extensive  with  the  Greek  TrcuSeia.  It  fails  to  express 
the  element  of  gymnastic  training  no  less  than  the  formal  ele- 
ment of  education,  and  stresses,  instead,  the  acquiring  of  pos- 
itive knowledge,  in  which  regard  it  is  opposed  to  eloquence  as 
well  as  to  philosophy.2  It  is  significant  that  Roman  education, 
based  as  it  is  on  bookish  lore,  has  no  adequate  equivalent  fbr 
the  Greek  TratSeta,  and  that  it  does  not,  as  we  should  expect, 
adopt  the  latter  among  its  stock  of  words,  whereas  c/uXoXoyio,  is 
taken  over  into  the  Latin  language  and  must  often  serve,  for 
want  of  a  better  term,  for  TratSeta.3 

The   tendency   toward   many-sidedness   was   not  lacking  in 

1  Petron.,  Sat.,  in. 

2  Thus  in  Suet.,  Cat.,  53:  "E  disciplinis  liberalibus  minus  erudition},  plu- 
rimum  eloquentia?  attendit. "  Cic.,  Fin.,  I,  7,  fin.:    "Vellem  equidem  aut  ipse 
(Epicurus)  doctrinis  fuisset  instructior — est  enim  non  satis  politus  iis  artibus, 
quas  qui  tenent  eruditi  appellantur — aut  ne  deteruisset  alios  a  studiis. " 

3  Attejus  Capito,  who  "multiplici  variaque  doctrina  censebatur",  was  the 
first  to  call  himself  "Philologus"  (Suet.,  De  Illustr.  Gramm.,  10).     Homer  is 
called  "poetarum  parens  et  philologiae  omnis  dux,"  in  Vitruv.,  Procem.;  Marc. 
Cappella  personifies  education  under  the  name  of  "Philologia. " 


l6O  ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

Roman  education,  and  the  Romans  consistently  understood  it 
as  demanding  that  the  mastery  of  language  should  be  based  on 
a  solid  knowledge  of  facts  and  things.  There  was  less  need  for 
insisting  on  the  correct  expression  of  knowledge  than  for  de- 
manding that  the  chief  concern  should  ever  be  the  mastery  of 
the  content,  that  the  matter  was  more  important  than  the 
form.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  Cicero  demands  of  the  orator 
that  he  be  a  master  of  all  arts  and  sciences.  With  the  same 
end  in  view  Quintilian  formulates  his  plan  of  studies.  Tacitus 
likewise  describes  true  eloquence  "as  proceeding  from  many 
studies,  from  diverse  abilities,  and  a  comprehensive  and  general 
knowledge,  as  the  orator  is  not  confined,  like  other  professions, 
to  a  narrow  field;  for  only  he  who  can  discourse  beautifully 
and  gracefully,  convincingly  and  appropriately  on  any  subject 
whatsoever,  is  worthy  of  being  called  an  orator. "  But  the 
Romans  were  as  much  alive  as  the  Greeks  to  the  dangers  of 
many-sided  studies,  and  their  literature  abounds  in  warnings 
not  to  strive  for  a  diversity  of  knowledge  at  the  expense  of 
unity  and  harmony,  not  to  miss  the  necessary  because  of  the 
interesting.  The  saying  of  Pliny  the  Younger,  " '  Multum,  non 
multa^i  is  still  an  axiom  of  the  schools,  and  Seneca's  attacks 
on  the  smatterers  of  universal  knowledge  are  spicy  commen- 
taries on  what  Heraclitus  and  other  Greeks  had  said  against 
pseudo-polymathy. 

3.  The  Romans  attribute  to  education  the  effect  of  civilizing 
all  who  come  under  its  influence,  and  the  civilizing  process 
constitutes  the  moral  side  of  Roman  education.  The  very  word 
" erudire"  (to  free  from  rudeness)  signifies  the  moral  influence 
that  the  Romans  attributed  to  education.  The  nation  of  sol- 
diers and  farmers  who  set  out  to  conquer  the  world  and  to 
spread  their  civilization  among  barbarian  tribes,  were  quick  to 
realize  that  civilization  is  the  proper  function  of  education: 
"The  learning  of  the  fine  arts  softens  the  manners,  and  does 
not  permit  men  to  remain  savages."  Cicero  maintains  that 
eloquence  first  collected  the  scattered  savages  of  early  times 
into  communities  and  so  converted  them  to  the  ways  of  civilized 
men.4  But  the  higher  and  truly  moral  influence  of  education 

, !  Tac.,  Dial.,  30. 

2  Epist.,  7,  9:  "Ajunt  multum  legendum  esse,  non  multa. "  Cf.  Quintilian: 
"Et  multa  magis  quam  multorum  lectione  formanda  mens"    (Inst.,  X,  I,  59). 

3  Ovid,  Pont.,  2,  9,  47:  "Didicisse  fideliter  artes  emollit  mores  nee  sinit 
esse  feros. " 

4  Cic.,  De  Orat.,  I,  8,  33;  De  Inv.,  I,  2;  cf.,  however,  Quint.,  Ill,  2,  4. 


THE  ETHOS  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  l6l 

and  its  utter  worthlessness  when  it  cuts  itself  off  from  ethical 
aims,  are  stressed  by  Cato  of  the  old  Roman  school  as  weH  as 
by  the  Stoic  Seneca.  The  latter  satirizes  the  "vain  and  un- 
profitable show  of  the  fashionable  learning  and  the  world  of 
books  from  which  no  good  can  come. "  Because  they  attached 
a  special  importance  to  the  educational  side  of  the  liberal  stud- 
ies, the  Romans  had  to  insist  more  than  the  Greeks  on  the 
reverence  which  the  pupils  owed  to  their  teachers:  "It  is  the 
will  of  the  gods  that  the  teacher  occupy  the  father's  place;" 
"the  teachers  have  engendered,  not  the  body,  but  the  soul,  and 
the  reverence  towards  them  is  most  favorable  to  progress  in 
studies."3 

With  their  strongly  developed  socio-political  sense  the  Ro- 
mans perceived  the  socio-ethical  principles  underlying  educa- 
tional traditions:  "The  education  of  the  young  represents  the 
greatest  and  most  valuable  service  to  the  state"  (Cicero);  "for  a 
man  to  rear  children,  to  immortalize  himself  and  his  race,  is  no 
mean  honor  and  of  greater  value  than  immense  wealth"  (Plau- 
tus).  But  here,  as  with  the  Greeks,  the  individual  motive  to 
immortalize  oneself  is  connected  with  the  desire  to  preserve  the 
intellectual  treasures  of  the  race.  Still  the  Roman  was  not 
content  with  transmitting  these  treasures  to  posterity,  for  he 
took  a  special  pride  in  spreading  them  broadcast  among  his  own 
contemporaries.  He  boasts  that  he  imposed  on  the  nations  not 
only  his  yoke  but  also  his  language,  and  thus  united  them  into 
one  whole  through  the  imperial  language  and  the  imperial  edu- 
cational system:4  "The  Athens  of  the  Greeks  now  belongs  to  us 
and  to  the  whole  world;  Gaul' is  so  well  versed  in  the  languages 
as  to  educate  lawyers  for  Britain;  and  in  Thule  they  discuss 
the  appointment  of  a  rhetorician. "  This  cosmopolitan  tend- 
ency of  Roman  education  was  a  distinct  advance  beyond  the 
Greek  ideal,  because  the  latter  remained  more  closely  allied 
with  the  nationality.  The  opposition  between  Hellenes  and 
barbarians  disappears,  and  the  state  of  mind  which  embodied 
all  the  educational  elements  was  named,  not  after  one  nation, 
but  after  the  common  humanity  of  the  whole  race.  Originally, 
humanitas  signified  what  is  proper  to  man  as  a  social  being: 
the  kind  feelings,  dispositions,  and  sympathies  of  man,  and 


1  Sen.,  Ep.,  59 

209:  "Di  praeceptorem  sancti 

benef.,  VI,  1 5,  2. 


•  aen.,  cp.,  59. 

2  Juv.,  Sat.,  7,  209:  "Di  praeceptorem  sancti  voluere  parentis  esse  loco." 

3  Quint.,  Inst.y  II,  a,  8;  cf.  Sen.,  £/>.,  73,  de  i 


4  Cf.  Aug.,  De  Civ.  Dei,  XIX,  7. 

5  Juv.,  Sat.,  15,  in  sq.;  cf.  Plin.,  N.  //.,  3,  6,  39. 

11 


162  ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

hence  was  similar  in  meaning  to  the  Greek  TrcuSeia.  Later, 
however,  it  came  to  mean  the  refinement  of  the  mind  in  keeping 
with  man's  high  nature  and  sublime  destiny:  "They  who  have 
coined  the  Latin  words  as  well  as  they  who  used  these  words 
correctly,  wished  humanitas  to  express  what  the  Greeks  have 
called  TraiSeux,  the  knowledge,  namely,  and  the  instruction  in 
those  matters  which,  when  known,  produce  men  in  the  full 
sense  of  the  term;  for  of  all  living  beings,  man  alone  can  strive 
for  such  a  mental  development  and  refinement,  and  therefore 
it  is  most  proper  that  this  education  has  been  named  the  study 
of  the  humanities."  Humanitas  is,  then,  the  proper  word  of 
the  Romans  for  education,  and  we  find  it  used  extensively  in 
connection  with  the  different  phases  of  education:  humanitas 
was  connected  with  doctrina,  bonce  arfes,  and  even  with  sermo? 
It  retained,  however,  the  original  meaning  of  the  sympatheti- 
cally human  and  elegant  refinement,  and  in  its  full  meaning 
it  expresses  alike  the  cosmopolitan  and  the  ethical  tendencies 
of  Roman  education. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Roman  School  System. 

i.  The  freedman  Spurius  Carvilius  opened  a  pay  school  in 
Rome,  about  250  B.  C.,  and  his  name  is  generally  associated 
with  the  beginnings  of  the  Roman  school  system,3  but  upon 
what  grounds  is  not  certain.  The  reforms  inaugurated  by  Spu- 
rius— he  changed  some  characters  of  the  alphabet,  establishing 
especially  the  difference  between  C  and  G — may  have  attached 
special  significance  to  his  teaching;  the  novelty  of  asking  com- 
pensation may  also  have  rendered  him  noteworthy..  But  be 
that  as  it  may,  so  much  is  certain  that  schools  existed  in  Rome 
before  the  time  of  Spurius,4  and  even  if  we  had  no  positive 

1  Cell.,  N.  A.,  13,  16:  "Qui  verba  Latina  fecerunt,  quique  iis  probe  usi 
sunt  .  .  .   humanitatem    appellaverunt  id  propemodum,    quod    Graeci    iraidelav 
vocant,  nos  eruditionem  institutionemque  in  bonas  artes  dicimus,  quas  qui 
sinceriter  percipiunt  (al.  cupiunt)  appetuntque,  ii  sunt  vel  maxime  humanis- 
simi.     Hujus  enim  scientiae  cura  ac  disciplina  ex  universis  animantibus  uni 
homini  data  est,  idcircoque  humanitas  appellata  est. "     Cf.  Cic.,  Rep.,  I,  17. 

2  Cf.  Cicero,  De  Or.,  I,  16,  71:  "In  omni  genere  sermonis,  in  omni  parte 
humanitatis  dixerim  oratorem  perfectum  esse  debere. " 

.      3  Pint.,  Qucest.  Rom.,   59:  txpt  5'   ijp^avro  /j.ur0ov  diddfficeiv  Kal  Trpwros  Avtyl-e  ypafi- 
Ha.To5i6a.ff  KaXeiov  Zir6pios  KapJ8/Xtos  dn-eXetfflepos    KapfiiXiov. 

4  Liv.,  Ill,  44,  where  he  tells  the  story  of  Virginia,  and  V,  27,  where  he 
tells  the  story  of  the  schoolmaster  of  Falerii,  who  turned  traitor. 


THE    ROMAN    SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  163 

proof  for  this,  we  might  conclude  it  from  the  fact  that  the  Ro- 
mans had  written  laws  200  years  before  him,  and  had  even 
long  before  been  interested  in  the  priestly  learning  of  the  neigh- 
boring nations.  From  the  earlier  name  for  school,  /udus,  we 
may  infer  with  some  probability  that  the  first  schools  were 
connected  with  religious  services.  The  ludi  were  the  festive 
games  connected  with  public  worship,  and  it  is  much  more 
probable  that  the  schools  were  named  after  these  games,  than 
that  learning  was  considered  a  sort  of  play  or  sport.  Further- 
more, if  Spurius  occasioned  so  much  comment  by  asking  pay 
for  his  teaching,  the  earlier  schools  may  well  have  been  con- 
nected with  the  religious  services.  Still,  we  have  no  direct 
proofs  to  substantiate  this  view. 

In  the  period  of  the  Republic,  the  Censors  were  entrusted 
with  the  supervision  of  education,  but  their  authority  was 
restricted,  as  in  the  matters  also  of  immorality  and  celibacy, 
to  passing  a  vote  of  disapproval.  For  the  rest  the  individual 
was  free  to  follow  his  own  views  in  educating  his  children:  "The 
Romans  have  seen  fit  not  to  pass  such  laws  anent  the  training 
of  the  young  as  would  establish  a  uniform  system  of  education."1 
This  liberal  policy  of  the  Romans  was  often  censured  by  the 
Greeks;  but  it  was  only  the  revolutionary  changes  which  threat- 
ened to  result  from  the  introduction  of  Greek  education  that 
induced  the  Romans  to  pass  school  regulations.  The  first  step 
in  this  direction  was  taken  in  161  B.  C.,  when  the  Senate  ordered 
the  Greek  philosophers  to  leave  the  country.  In  93  B.  C.,  the 
Censors  Cn.  Domitius  Ahenobarbus  and  L.  Licinius  Crassus 
published  an  edict  against  the  Latin  rhetors,  which,  though  it 
failed  to  produce  the  desired  effect,  is  an  interesting  document 
for  the  history  of  education:  "It  has  been  brought  to  our  knowl- 
edge that  there  are  certain  educational  reformers  and  that  the 
young  people  flock  to  their  schools.  These  reformers  call  them- 
selves rhetors,  and  they  demand  of  the  young  that  they  sit  in 
their  schools  day  by  day.  But  our  forefathers  have  ordained 
what  is  to  be  taught  in  our  schools  to  the  young,  and  what 
schools  they  are  to  frequent.  We  can  not  approve  of  these 
new  practices,  opposed,  as  they  are,  to  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  our  forefathers;  it  is  for  this  reason  that  we  would  pub- 
licly state  that  we  disapprove  alike  of  the  new  teachers  and  of 
their  pupils." 

1  Cic.,  Rep.,  VI,  2. 

2  Suet.,  De  Clar.  Rhet.,  i. 


164  ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

2.  The  new  education,  however,  continued  tg  win  favor, 
despite  the  government  opposition,  and  shortly  after  the  pub- 
lication of  the  edict  Rome  had  no  less  than  twenty  schools, 
directed,  in  great  part,  by  capable  grammarians  and  rhetori- 
cians. The  Grecism  schola  now  began  to  supplant  the  old 
Latin  ludus^  and  the  schools  were  also  graded  according  to  the 
Greek  system.  The  ludi  magisfer — known  also  as  litterator^ 
which  name  later  gave  way  to  grammafisfes — taught  the  ele- 
ments; his  school  building  was  modest  and,  his  pay  equally  so. - 
His  instruction  was  known  as  the  trivia/is  sciential  i.  e.,  the 
knowledge  to  be  found  in  the  streets;  or  perhaps,  too,  the  cir- 
cumstance that  his  school  was  generally  located  at  crossroads 
(in  triviis)  gave  rise  to  a  term  which  was  later  used  so  exten- 
sively. 'Larger  schools  employed  assistant  teachers  and  special 
tutors  for  writing  (notarii)  and  arithmetic  (calculatores). 

A  more  honorable  position  was  held  by  the  litter atus  or 
grammaticus,  who  taught  grammar,  read  and  interpreted  the 
poets,  practiced  recitations  and  disputations,  and  occasionally 
taught  the  elements  of  rhetoric.  Suetonius  has  given  us  fine 
sketches  of  some  Roman  grammarians;  they  are  splendid  types 
and  men  of  strong  character.  There  is  the  learned,  but  irascible, 
Orbilius  Pupillus,  the  teacher  of  Horace,  who,  at  war  with  the 
rest  of  the  world,  wrote  a  book  on  the  sufferings  of  the  school- 
master, and  died  poor,  but  received  a  monument  in  his  native 
city,  Beneventum.  Another  type  is  Valerius  Flaccus,  who  in- 
troduced competitive  drills  and  prizes  among  his  pupils,  and 
who  was  so  much  attached  to  his  charges  that  when  Augustus 
appointed  him  tutor  of  his  grandchildren,  he  would  not  leave 
his  school,  so  that  the  Emperor  was  forced  to  transfer  the  whole 
institution  to  the  imperial  palace.  Another  interesting  figure  is 
Remmius  Palaemon,  who,  having  been  born  in  slavery,  accom- 
panied the  son  of  his  master  to  school  and  acquired  so  extensive 
a  knowledge  from  merely  listening  there  that  he  was  much  in 
demand  as  a  teacher.  In  this  way  he  amassed  an  immense  for- 
tune, but  his  pride — he  maintained  that  learning  had  come  to 
the  earth  at  his  birth  and  would  leave  again  at  his  death— 
and  licentiousness  gave  offence. 

The  rhetorician  finished  the  education  begun  by  the  gram- 
marian. Adults,  and  even  distinguished  men,  frequented  the 
first  schools  of  the  rhetoricians.  The  rhetorician  was  always 
assured  of  a  large  attendance  whenever  he  or  his  pupils  con- 

1  Quint.,  I,  4,  27. 


THE    ROMAN  SCHOOL   SYSTEM.  165 

ducted  public  exercises  in  oratory.  The  public  exercises  in  a 
good  school  of  oratory  were  always  an  event  for  Roman  society; 
every  new  turn  of  expression,  every  witty  allusion  to  the  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  was  applauded;  and  the  performers  would  ever 
after  remember  their  parts.  Seneca,  for  instance,  in  his  old  age 
recorded  long  passages  from  speeches  he  had  delivered  as  a 
boy.1  The  technical  rules  were  many  and  covered  the  most 
minute  details.  Not  only  the  plan  of  the  oration  and  the  orna- 
ments of  style,  but  also  the  euphony  of  words  and  the  delivery, 
were  the  subject  of  serious  study  and  much  practice.  Whether 
the  sentence  should  begin  with  an  anapest  or  a  spondee,  was  a 
question  of  great  moment.  Every  movement  of  the  hand,  the 
folds  of  the  toga,  the  dropping  and  the  throwing  back  of  the 
toga — all  was  subject  to  rules.  "The  art  of  oratory  required 
the  full  development  of  both  body  and  mind;"2  and  in  the  school 
of  oratory  the  young  Roman  acquired  the  good  taste,  the  man- 
ners, and  the  pleasing  address  of  the  gentleman. 

The  young  -Romans  were  accustomed,  even  after  their  own 
country  had  established  a  complete  system  of  schools,  to  go  to 
foreign  countries  for  their  higher  studies,  especially  for  a  course 
in  philosophy.  Though  Alexandria  was  considered  the  home  of 
scientific  research,  yet  Athens  and  Rhodes  were  frequented 
more  by  the  traveling  students.  The  higher  forms  of  Greek 
oratory  were  likewise  studied  in  Greece;  and  in  the  period  of 
the  Empire,  the  Sophists,  who  represented  the  last  flowering,  as 
it  were,  of  Greek  rhetoric,  attracted  pupils  from  all  parts  of  the 
world. 

3.  The  number  of  the  lower  schools  must  have  been  very 
great.  "It  is  a  mistaken  opinion,"  says  Mommsen,3  "that 
antiquity  was  materially  inferior  to  ou.r  own  times  in  the  diffu- 
sion of  elementary  attainments.  Even  among  the  lower  classes 
and  slaves  there  was  considerable  knowledge  of  reading,  writing, 
and , arithmetic:  in  the  case  of  a  slave  steward,  for  instance, 
Cato,  following  the  example  of  Mago,  takes  for  granted  the 
ability  to  read  and  write. "  Among  the  lower  classes  the  truly 
gifted  could  find  opportunities  enough  to  learn  to  read  and 
write,  and  thus  the  way  was  open  to  them  to  acquire  an  ex- 
tensive knowledge.  The  schools  of  the  provinces,  the  lower  as , 
well  as  the  higher,  were  no  mean  factor  in  the  Romanizing 

1  Ussing,  1.  c.,  pp.  148  ff. 

2  Burckhardt,  Die  Zeit  Konstantins  des  Grossen,  2nd  ed.,  1880,  p.  380. 

3  History  of  Rome,  transl.  by  W.  P.  Dickson,  New  York,  1894,  II,  p.  494. 


1 66  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 

process  and  fully  as  important  in  this  regard  as  the  garrisons 
and  courts.  In  Spain,  Sertorius  had  established,  about  80  B.  C., 
a  school  at  Osca,  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  Greco-Roman 
culture,  and,  as  early  as  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
the  Spanish  schools  could  point  to  such  graduates  as  M.  An- 
naeus  Seneca,  the  father  of  the  philosopher,  and  the  celebrated 
rhetorician  Quintilian.  The  African  Province  became  in  the 
second  century  the  literary  centre  of  the  Empire,  and  Utica, 
Carthage,  and  Madaura  were  the  seats  of  famous  schools.  In 
Gaul  the  Roman  schools  spread  so  fast  that  Horace  expressed 
the  hope  that  the  "pofor  Rhodani"  would  read  his  poems, 
and  not  a  few  cities  of  France  and  the  border  country  of  Ger- 
many can  boast  of  having  possessed  schools  at  the  time  of  the 
Roman  occupation.  Among  the  Britains,  Agricola  gave  the  im- 
petus to  study  Latin;  and  the  Pannonians  learned  the  imperial 
language  under  Augustus.1  The  East  was  slower  in  accepting 
the  language  and  education  of  Rome,  as  it  had  assimilated  the 
Greek  learning  long  before  the  Roman  invasion;  but  Latin' 
schools  seem  to  have  flourished  there  also,  as  may  be  concluded 
from  the  textbook  that  Dositheus  wrote  in  Latin  for  Greek- 
speaking  pupils.2 

With  a  view  to  making  the  treasures  of  Greco-Roman  cul- 
ture  accessible   to   the   vast   Empire,   the   Caesars   organized   a 

1  Cf.  Eckstein  in  Schmid's  Enzylkopadie,  XI,  p.  497. 

2  For  the  references  see  Eckstein,  1.  c.,  p.  509.     The  exercises  are  written 
in  Greek  and  Latin  and  are  placed  in  parallel  columns.    They  give  a  good 
view  of  the  teaching  methods  as  well  as  of  the  daily  life  of  the  pupils,  and 
hence  we  may  be  pardoned  for  quoting  extensively.     "I  go  to  school;  I  greet 
the  teacher,  and  he  returns  my  greeting.     Good  morning,  master;  good  morn- 
ing, my  fellow  pupils.     Let  me  go  to  my  place.     Give  me  my  chair  and  stool. 
Move  up.     Come  here.     I  am  seated;  I  am  studying,  and  learning  by  heart. 
I  know  my  lesson  and  can  recite  it.     Write.     I  am  writing.     I  studied,  then 
recited,  then  I  began  to  read  a  few  verses.     I  can  not  write  first;  please,  write 
it  for  me  as  best  you  can.     The  wax  is  too  hard;  it  should  have  bee/i  soft. 
I  write,  then  rub  it  off.    The  page,  the  stylus.     I  know  my  lesson.     1  asked 
the  teacher  for  leave  to  go  home  for  my  breakfast.     He  dismissed  me;  I  took 
my  leave,  and  he  returned  my  greeting.     After  I  returned  from  breakfast,  I 
recited  my  lesson.     Boy,  let  me  see  your  tablet.    The  others  took  their  turn 
in  reciting  their  lessons.     I  also  know  my  lesson.     I  must  take  a  bath.     I 
am  coming;  I  have  arranged  for  the  fresh  linen.    Then  I  ran  and  came  to  the 
bath. "     The  quaint  little  book  contains,  besides  such  conversations,  a  Latin 
grammar,  a  Greek-Latin  dictionary,  fables  of  ^Esop,  a  brief  account  of  the 
Trojan  War,  the  names  of  the  gods,  the  constellations,  tales  from  mythology, 
court-decisions  of  the  Emperor  Adrian  in  the  form  of  anecdotes,  and  extracts 
from  a  compendium  of  law.     And  thus  classical  antiquity  did  not  lack  the 
medley  of  the  modern  reader. 


THE    ROMAN   SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

system  of  state  schools  that  was  well  adapted  to  this  purpose. 
It  is  unfair  to  accuse  them  of  having,  through  their  system 
and  laws,  stifled  a  free  and  natural  growth,  because  it  is  only 
through  a  system  and  laws  that  education  could  at  all  be  organ- 
ized, a  conditio  sine  qua  non  for  all  later  cultural  progress.  The 
imperial  schools  were  the  predecessors  of  the  universities;  their 
methods  were  copied  by  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Renaissance, 
and  the  Didactica  of  the  lyth  century  was  patterned  after  Quin- 
tilian's  textbook,  the  latter  being  the  fruit  of  twenty  years  of 
teaching  in  a  school  endowed  by  a  Roman  emperor. 

Julius  Caesar,  the  creator  of  the  Empire,  took  the  first  steps 
towards  giving  state  aid  to  the  schools.  He  granted  the  privilege 
of  citizenship  to  the  teachers  of  the  liberal  arts,  and  planned 
the  founding  of  a  public  library  of  Greek  and  Latin  books,  the 
librarianship  of  which  he  offered  to  Varro.  Augustus  was  a 
generous  patron  of  scholars  and  artists,  and  founded  the  Octa- 
vian  and  Palatine  Libraries.  Vespasian  was  the  first  to  grant 
the  higher  teachers  a  salary,  and  Quintilian  is  mentioned  as  the 
first  salaried  professor.  Trajan  provided  for  the  education  of 
the  children  of  the  poor,  and  the  U/pia,  a  library  founded  by 
him,  surpassed  all  similar  institutions.  Encouraged  by  his  ex- 
ample, the  provinces  also  began  to  provide  better  for  education 
and  to  employ  teachers.  Adrian  founded  the  Atheneum  on 
the  Capitoline  Hill,  and  here  orators  and  poets  appeared  in 
public,  and  Greek  and  Latin  rhetoricians  conducted  classes. 
Owing  to  his  efforts  the  Athenian  schools  flourished  anew,  and 
he  added  a  palatial  gymnasium  and  a  large  library  to  the  exist- 
ing institutions.,  and  scattered  schools  all  over  the  provinces, 
particularly  his  native  province,  Spain.  He  honorably  retired 
on  pensions  those  men  who  had  grown  old  in  the  teaching  serv- 
ice. His  successor,  Antoninus  Pius,  paid  high  honors  and  sala- 
ries to  the  higher  teachers  in  all  provinces;  he  made  a  privileged 
class  of  these  by  exempting  philosophers,  rhetoricians,  and 
grammarians  from  taxes,  military  service,  the  quartering  of 
soldiers,  and  other  public  duties.  But  the  number  of  privileged 
positions  was  limited,  so  that  small  towns  were  entitled  to  six, 
larger  towns  to  eleven,  and  the  capitals  to  fifteen.1  Marcus 
Aurelius  endowed  two  professorships  at  each  of  the  four  Athen- 
ian schools  of  philosophy  (Academic,  Peripatetic,  Stoic,  and 

1  Ussing,  1.  c.,  p.  1 60.  These  figures  do  not  fix  the  number  of  teachers  to 
be  employed  in  the  respective  places,  but  only  the  number  of  the  privileged 
positions. 


168  ROMAN   EDUCATION. 

Epicurean)  and,  besides,  two  professorships  of  rhetoric.  Alex- 
ander Severus  founded  at  Rome  new  chairs  of  rhetoric,  grammar, 
medicine,  mathematics,  mechanics,  architecture,  and  haruspicy, 
and  granted  free  scholarships  to  poor  students.  In  301  Diocletian 
-made  regulations  to  prohibit  the  teachers  from  demanding  too 
high  a  compensation  of  their  pupils:  the  master  (magtster,  insti- 
tutor  litterarum)  was  to  receive  no  more  per  month  than  50 
denarii;  the  teacher  of  arithmetic,  75;  the  teacher  of  shorthand, 
the  same  sum;  the  teacher  of  architecture  was  allowed  100 
denarii;  the  teacher  of  Greek  or  Latin  grammar,  2OO;  and  the 
teacher  of  geometry,  the  same  amount;  while  the  rhetorician  or 
sophist  was  entitled  to  the  highest  compensation,  250  denarii.1 
Constantine  confirmed  all  the  privileges  previously  granted  to 
teachers  and  added  that  of  personal  inviolability. 

The  rich  endowment  of  the  professorships  made  them  desir- 
able, and  this  brought  it  about  that  the  candidates  for  them 
had  to  submit  to  competitive  examinations.  The  Emperor 
Julian  was  the  first  to  issue  a  decree  to  this  effect,  and  his  de- 
cree is  the  oldest  document  extant  relative  to  the  .admittance 
of  candidates  to  the  teaching  profession:  "The  teachers  and 
masters  of  studies  should  be  distinguished,  first,  for  their  ex- 
emplary conduct  and,  secondly,  for  their  eloquence.  But  since 
it  is  impossible  for  me  to  be  personally  present  in  each  com- 
munity, I  order  that  the  candidate  for  the  office  of  teacher 
should  not  be  admitted  in  a  careless,  haphazard  way,  but-  only 
after  the  governing  board  (prdo)  has  declared  him  fit  for  the 
office,  and  after  the  chief  men  of  the  council  (curiales  optimi} 
have  unanimously  declared  in  his  favor."  The  enactments  of 
Justinian  are  the  oldest  academic  laws  extant.  According  to 
his  regulations,  the  students  must,  before  being  admitted  to 
the  schools  of  the  Capital,  produce  before  the  board  their  natu- 
ralization papers,  must  next  decide  for  a  certain  science,  keep 
aloof  from  forbidden  societies,  and,  in  general,  lead  a  good  life, 
and  complete  their  studies  when  twenty  years  of  age.  The 
graduation  papers  should  report  upon  the  morals  of  the  student 
and  his  progress  in  studies,  "so  that,"  as  the  document  states 
in  the  end,  "We  may  obtain  full  knowledge  of  the  scholar's 
good  points  and  the  studies  pursued  by  each  student,  and  may 
be~able  to  decide  whether  and  at  what  time  We  shall  need  his 

1  Th.  Mommsen,  Ueber  das  Edikt  Dioktetians,  etc.  in  the  Ber.  d.  Konigl. 
Sachs.  Ges.  d.  Wissenschaften,  1851,  pp.  I  ff. 

2  Cod.  Theod.,  XIII,  3,  5. 


THE   ROMAN  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  169 

services.  "  The  number  of  professors  teaching  in  the  larger 
institutions  may  be  inferred  from  the  regulations  passed  by 
Theodosius  II.  in  425,  which  ordained  that  Constantinople 
University,  which  was  rivalling  the  imperial  university  at  Rome, 
should  have  31  professorships:  three  for  Latin  rhetoric,  and  five 
for  Greek  rhetoric;  ten  for  Latin  grammar,  and  the  same  num- 
ber for  Greek  grammar;  one  for  philosophy;  and  two  for  juris- 
prudence. Only  the  holders  of  these  professorships  were  per- 
mitted to  lecture  in,  the  halls  of  the  Capitol;  but  the  public 
professors  were,  on  the  other  hand,  forbidden  to  conduct  private 
schools. 

The  political  magistrates  controlled  all  the  schools  and  in- 
stitutions of  learning.  It  would  seem  as  though  a  special  official 
had  been  appointed  for  a  time  for  this  work;  at  least  there  was 
an  office  charged  with  the  supervision  of  schools  and  libraries: 
eVt  ru>v  3ij3^.ioOrK(t)v  /cat  eVl  TraiSetas-2 


1  Ibid.,  XIV,  9. 

2  Grassberger,  1.  c.,  II,  p.  3. 


V. 
CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Aims  of  Christian  Education. 

i.  In  the  process  of  changing  the  face  of  the  world  the  forces 
of  Christianity  were  first  engaged  upon  the  races  and  peoples 
belonging  to  the  Roman  Empire,  and  this  Christianizing  of 
Greco-Roman  education  is  of  basic  importance  for  all  later  sys- 
tems of  education.  This  is  not  saying  that  all  the  educational 
influences  of  Christianity  were  called  into  play  in  this  first 
period,  for  the  influences  received  by  the  ancient  peoples  which 
were  then  the  representatives  of  education,  were  other  than  were 
received  later  by  peoples  just  emerging  upon  the  scene  of  civili- 
zation. And  these  later  peoples,  too,  in  their  maturity,  re- 
ceived peculiar,  though  again  different,  influences  from  the  same 
source.  In  point  of  fact,  each  age  has  come  under  the  creative 
influence  of  Christianity,  but  none  has  exhausted  the  fulness  of 
its  blessings.  The  Age  of  the  Fathers  built,  indeed,  the  founda- 
tion for  later  developments  in  education  as  well  as  in  other 
fields,  but  it  did  this  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  the  first  to  receive 
the  educational  elements  of  the  new  teaching  and  the  first  to 
witness  how  these  elements,  added  to  a  soil  rich  with  the  ma- 
terials of  a  different  civilization,  showed  their  strength  by  pro- 
ducing fruit  a  hundredfold. 

The  Gospel  brought  along  no  system  of  education  and,  only 
in  a  limited  measure,  did  it  furnish  the  wherewithal  for  the 
making  of  one,  and  the  materials  embodied  in  Christian  educa- 
tion were  only  born  of  the  ideals  that  Christianity  brought  into 
the  world.  But  these  ideals  are  by  their  nature  opposed  to  the 
ideals  of  the  education  of  classical  antiquity,  and  the  ethos  of 
Christian  education  is  the  reverse,  in  more  than  one  regard,  of 
Greco-Roman  civilization.  Though  the  religious  element  was 
not  lacking  in  heathen  civilization,  yet  it  was  considered  of 
secondary  importance.  To  the  cultured  Greek  and  Roman  the 

170 


THE  AIMS  OF  CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION. 

religious  sense  appeared  of  no  higher  importance  than  other 
phases  of  the  complete  character.  But  the  religious  element 
was  the  core  of  Christian  education,  and  it  was  proposed  to 
men,  not  in  an  abstract  or  obscure  formula,  neither  in  the  im- 
agery of  poetic  thought,  but  in  the  figure  of  a  concrete  person, 
the  model  for  all  followers  of  Christianity:  "Other  foundation 
no  man  can  lay,  but  that  which  is  laid;  which  is  Christ  Jesus." 
(I.  Cor.,  3,  n.)  As  the  glad  tidings  were  not  transmitted  "in 
the  learned  words  of  human  wisdom,  but  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Spirit,  comparing  spiritual  things  with  spitirual  (ibid.,  2,  13)," 
so  no  knowledge  and  no  ability,  if  disjoined  from  Him,  before 
Whom  the  wisdom  of  the  world  is  foolishness,  could  be  held  of 
any  worth.  The  Christian  sense  turned  away  as  well  from  the 
Jewish  knowledge  of  the  Law  as  from  the  aesthetical  and  world- 
ly culture  of  the  Greek,  and  turned  to  what  appeared  to  these 
as  an  abomination  and  a  foolishness.  To  the  Christian  the 
learning  of  the  Jew  and  the  culture  of  the  Greek  was  the  fountain- 
head  of  pride  and  self-justification,  and  the  very  opposite  not 
only  of  that  poverty  in  the  spirit  to  which  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven has  been  promised,  but  also  of  that  childlike  spirit  which 
is  the  spirit  of  the  children  of  God. 

A  second  element  that  was  also  strange  to  the  ancient  world, 
was  introduced  with  the  Christian  hope  for  an  eternal  life. 
The  innermost  feelings  of  the  ancients  were  bound  up  in  this 
world  as  being  the  scene  of  their  labors,  sorrows,  and  joys; 
and  their  contentment  with  the  things  of  sense  was  not  disturbed 
by  any  teachings  of  the  philosophers,  though  the  latter,  per- 
petuating the  traditions  of  the  olden  times,  taught  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  and  the  judgment  of  the  gods.  The  Christian, 
however,  did  then  and  does  still  look  forward  to  the  next'  world 
as  man's  true  home,  "for  we  have  not  here  a  lasting  city,  but 
we  seek  one  that  is  to  come."  (Heb.,  13,  14.)  Hence  he  must 
in  all  his  doings  distinguish  between  such  actions  as  have  but  a 
temporal  end  and  such  as  will  extend  in  effect  into  eternity. 
Consequently,  the  Christian  attached  less  weight  than  the  Greek 
and  the  Roman  to  the  distinction  between  liberal  and  illiberal 
arts;  his  Faith  established  other  and  higher  standards  for  eval- 
uating the  things  of  the  earth,  and  hence  the  distinction  between 
liberal  and  illiberal  arts  became  less  marked.  It  is  now  con- 
sidered the  chief  aim  of  education  to  direct  the  minds  of  the 
young  to  "what  is  modest  and  sublime."  The  sublime  belongs 

1  Clem.  Rom.,  Ad  Cor.,  I,  I :  utrpta,  KO.I  (re^A  ioeiv. 


172  CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION  ON   ROMAN   SOIL. 

to  the  supernatural  order;  for  this  life  it  is  enough,  if  we  attain 
to  what  is  modest:  that  a  man  be  a  true  Christian  in  belief 
and  practice — that  is  the  all-important  consideration.  Of  infi- 
nitely less  moment  is  it  whether  he  be  practicing,  beside  his  holy 
Faith,  'a  liberal  art,  or  whether  he  be  only  a  humble  mechanic. 
Education  fulfills  its  chief  purpose  if  it  assists  "the  man  of  God 
to  be  perfect,  furnished  to  every  good  work."  (II.  Tim.,  3,  17.) 
The  educational  ideal  of  the  Greeks  ignored  social  and  voca- 
tional relations;  but  this  haughty  aloofness  had  to  give  way 
before  the  teaching  of  Christianity  that  special  gifts  and  offices 
and  their  organic  co-operation,  are  traceable  to  divine  influences, 
and  are  the  type  of  the  communion  of  the  Church  (see  supra 
pp.  2  and  39).  The  Christian  peoples  have  developed  a  concept 
of  education  that  is  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  an- 
cients, and  the  very  term  "  vocation, "\ which  is  derived  from 
the  vocatio  (/cA^cri?)  of  the  New  Testament,  reveals  the  influence 
of  the  Christian  religion. 

2.  Having  thus  established  as  the  chief  end  of  education 
something  that  was  foreign  to  the  ancients,  Christianity  had  to 
abandon  also  the  exclusive  character  of  ancient  education,  by 
reason  of  which  culture  was  granted  to  only  a  few  and  denied 
to  the  uneducated  masses.  The  latter  condition  of  affairs  ap- 
peared irremediable  to  even  the  greatest  and  keenest  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.  However,  Plato's  saying,  "It  is  difficult 
to  discover  the  Creator  and  Father  of  all,  but  to  announce  Him 
to  all  is  impossible,"1  has  been  proved  untrue  by  the  achieve- 
ments of  Christianity.  Even  the  lowest  is  now  free  to  ask  with 
Philip,  "Lord,  show  us  the  Father;"2  and  St.  Chrysostom  could 
truly  say  in  praise  of  the  Cross  that  it  had  made  all  peasants 
philosophers.  It  is  certain  that  the  Church  gave  and  gives  to 
each  individual,  irrespective  of  sex,  of  family,  or  position  in 
life,  an  ideal  seed  of  the  inner  life,  of  which  ancient  education 
could  offer  a  counterpart,  inadequate  at  that,  only  through 
long  and  weary  studies.  It  may  be  said  that  Christianity 
directs  all  to  the  path  that  leads  to  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  so 
enables  all  to  lead  a  spiritual  life.  Ancient  philosophy  had 
conceived  the  spirit  as  vovs,  mens^  mind,  or  reason,  the  faculty 
of  thinking  and  reasoning,  and  deemed  this  to  be  the  faculty 
of  the  soul  that  is  destined  to  rule  the  sensuous  appetite,  and 
which  was  therefore  to  be  trained  to  fulfill  its  function.  This 

1  Plat.,  Tim.,  p.  28. 

2  John  14,  8. 


THE  AIMS  OF  CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION.  173 

training  of  the  mind  was  to  be  done  systematically  and  was  to 
be  encouraged  in  every  possible  way;  but  such  a  task  could  l?e 
undertaken  only  by  the  fortunate  few.  Christianity,  however, 
sees  the  governing  principle  of  man  in  another  field  of  his  mys- 
terious inner  nature,  not  in  his  intellect,  but  in  his  pneumatic 
or  spiritual  faculty.  In  this  sense  the  Christian  religion  speaks 
of  the  spirit  (TTvevp.cn}  in  opposition  to  the  flesh  (crct/>£),  and 
the  latter  includes,  not  only  the  sensuous  appetite,  but  every- 
thing connected  with  the  earth  earthly.  The  spiritual  in  man, 
the  spirit  that  quickeneth,  must  also  be  kindled  by  the  word 
and  strengthened  by  discipline;  but,  as  it  has  its  source  in  God, 
it  allows  little  opportunity  for  human  development  and  en- 
deavor. Its  proper  element  is  the  life  of  Faith,  but  all  faculties 
of  the  inner  man,  the  understanding  included,  may  become  its 
instruments.  The  value,  then,  of.  the  understanding  is  not 
absolute,  nor  beyond  that  of  a  most  helpful  instrument.  But 
though  the  spiritual  life  does  not  depend  on  its  development, 
yet  the  understanding,  by  having  the  power  to  raise  man  above 
the  sensuous,  becomes  a  strong  weapon  in  the  fight  against  the 
flesh.  Thus  the  tendency  of  ancient  education  toward  the 
spiritualizing  of  man  is  realized  in  a  higher  sense  than  was 
dreamed  of  by  the  heathen.  The  exclusiveness  of  ancient  edu- 
cation is  no  more,  but  its  moral  value  and  content  are  preserved 
in  the  new  order,  and  the  spiritual  tendency  furnishes  new 
arguments,  even  if  only  indirectly,  for  cultivating  and  ennobling 
the  understanding.  "The  Logos  enters,"  as  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria puts  it,  "through  the  gate  of  the  thoughts." 

The  regeneration  in  spirit  demanded  by  the  Christian  reli- 
gion takes  place  in  the  innermost  parts  of  man's  nature,  where 
no  teachings  can  assume  such  'plastic  forms  as  were  possible 
within  the  field  which  ancient  education  had  apportioned  off 
as  its  proper  domain.  It  is  not  the  aim  of  Christianity  to  make 
a  work  of  art  of  the  inward  and  outward  man.  Hence  the 
Christian  religion  appears  to  be  unfavorable  to  the  aesthetic 
tendency  of  education.  The  Christian  ideal  insists  more  on* 
the  complete  changing  of  the  personality  than  on  harmonious 
and  general  development,  Its  doctrines  are  intended  for  a 
leaven  in  the  inner  man,  rather  than  for  a  means  to  assist  in 
the  artistic  development  of  the  faculties.  Nevertheless,  the 
aesthetical  element  had  its  due  place  in  early  Christian  edu- 
cation, for  not  only  did  the  Church  invite  the  arts  to  assist 

1  Clem.  Al.,  Coh.,  i.,  fin. 


174  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

in  her  divine  worship,  but  the  spirit  of  Christianity  supplied  a 
content  for  the  aesthetical  forms  in  keeping  with  its  own  high 
nature.  Even  if  the  forms  did  thus  lose  somewhat  of  their 
purity,  they  were  more  than  compensated  for  this  loss  by  the 
richness  of  the  content  they  received.  Christianity  deepened 
and  spiritualized  all  human  activity;  and  for  this  reason  the 
creations  of  the  Christian  and  of  the  ancient  world  are  so  differ- 
ent in  conception  and  execution,  so  that  the  works  of  classical 
antiquity  often  appear  to  be,  despite  their  greatness  and  per- 
fection of  form;  cold,  unsympathetic,  and  even  soulless.  This 
general  tendency  of  the  Christian  religion  extended  in  time 
and  with  ever-growing  strength  to  music  and  the  arts  of  design 
no  less  than  to  poetry  and  the  ar-t  of  language,  and  through 
these  to  the  entire  field  of  education.  In  Christian  education, 
however,  the  arts  never  gained  the  high  position  they  had  occu- 
pied in  ancient  civilization:  the  civilization  of  the  Christian 
religion  has  introduced  so  deep  and  serious  a  view  of  life  as 
not  to  permit  the  spirit  of  play  to  remain  the  governing  prin- 
ciple of  inner  formation. 

3.  The  many-sidedness  of  ancient  education  was,  like  its 
aesthetical  tendency,  a  hindrance  rather  than  an  advantage  to 
the  growth  of  the  Christian  educational  system.  The  home  of 
the  busybodies,  where  the  "natives  as  well  as  the  strangers 
employed  themselves  in  nothing  else  than  either  in  telling  or 
hearing  some  new  thing"  (Acts,  17,  21),  proved  an  infertile 
soil  for  the  seed  of  the  Gospel.  Yet  the  universality  of  Chris- 
tianity influenced  the  entire  field  of  arts  and  sciences.  The 
mind  of  the  Christian  was  naturally  ready  to  receive  all  truth, 
for  the  truth  of  science  and  of  art  is  in  the  end  but  "an  ema- 
nation from  Him  Who  has  said:  I  am  the  Truth;"1  and  hence 
the  Apostle  could  say  truthfully,  "All  things  are  yours  .... 
whether  it  be  the  world  of  life  or  death  or  things  present  or 
things  to  come;  all  are  yours."  (I.  Cor.  3,  22.)  But  the  uni- 
versality of  Christianity  tends  more  towards  the  whole  than 
the  multiplicity  of  the  parts;  its  aim  is  the  totality  rather  than 
the  diversity  of  the  parts.  This  tendency  renders  Christianity 
so  important  a  factor  for  the  natural  growth  of  science  and, 
therefore,  also  of  education.  To  establish  the  character  of 
science  as  being  one  harmonious  organism,  it  was  necessary 
that  a  harmonious  system  of  philosophy  and  theology  be  first 
established,  and  that,  furthermore,  the  leading  role  in  the  world 

1  Aug.,  De  Doctrina  Christ.,  prooem.,  8. 


THE  AIMS  OF   CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION.  175 

of  learning  be  assigned  to  theology.  Certain  writers  have  found 
fault  with  this  leadership  of  theology,  contending  that  it  pre- 
vented the  free  and  unhampered  development  of  science.  But 
in  point  of  fact,  this  leadership  has  been  most  favorable  to 
science,  for  it  gave  to  the  endless  variety  of  scientific  efforts  a 
kind  of  unity  and  harmony,  and  this  resulted  in  the  intensive, 
instead  of  in  the  extensive,  work  of  the  individual  scholars. 
The  peace  that  ensued  among  the  wrangling  philosophers  was 
the  stillness  of  recollection  and  a  blessing  for  science,  for  it 
meant  that  the  world  of  scholarship  was  rapt,  as  it  were,  in 
deep  Pythagorean  silence.  Of  the  individual  sciences,  histori- 
cal research  admittedly  received  its  universal  character  when 
the  Bible  became  the  world-book,  as  assembling  in  one  book 
what  Orientals  and  Greeks  and  Romans  had  written  on  history. 
The  Bible  furnished  the  first  principles  for  the  history  of  the 
human  race;  the  sermon  preached  by  St.  Paul  at  Athens  and 
Augustine's  "City  of  God"  contain  the  beginnings  of  all  phi- 
losophy of  history.1  Similarly,  the  science  of  language  is  in- 
debted to  the  "loosening  of  the  tongues,"  because  the  Church, 
when  preaching  the  Gospel,  was  the  first  to  lay  all  languages 
under  tribute  and  so  afforded  the  first  opportunity  for  treating 
all  languages  from  a  common  point  of  view.2  And  the  natural 
sciences,  too,  received  from  Christianity  not  only  the  impetus 
to  dig  deep  into  the  nature  of  things — that  tendency  to  search 
for  the  last  reasons  and  the  nature  of  things,  which  was  more 
apt  to  encourage  the  laborious  work  of  the  scientist  than  was 
the  care-free  and  happy-go-lucky  character  of  the  heathen 3- 
but  also  the  concept  of  nature  uninhabited  by  fauns  and  nymphs. 
And  hance  it  was  only  after  the  Christian  view  of  physical 
nature  had  taken  root,  that  the  scientist  was  able  to  conclude 
upon  laws,  uniform  and  universal,  governing  the  visible  crea- 
tion. The  unity  and  harmony  of  nature  could  not  be  estab- 
lished but  upon  the  grounds  of  monotheism,  teaching  one  Creator 
for  the  whole  creation,  and  it  was  the  monotheism  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  not  the  monotheism  of  the  Jews,  that  first  let  this 
principle  of  the  unity  of  nature  bear  fruit  in  scientific  research. 

1  Cf.  Rocholl,  Die  Philosophic  der  Geschichte,  Gottingen,  1878,  pp.  21   ff. 
and  391. 

2  "The  science  of  the  languages  of  mankind  is  a  science  which,  without 
Christianity,  would  never  have  sprung  into  life, "  M.  Mtiller,  Lectures  on  the 
Science  of  Language,  New  York,  1866,  I,  p.  128;  Cf.  J.  Grimm,  Deutsche  Gram- 
matik,  I:  Widmung  an  Savigny. 

3  Dubois-Reymond,  KuIturgeschichteundNaturwissenschaft,  Leipzig,  1 878,  p.JQ. 


176  CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION  ON   ROMAN    SOIL. 

The  false  many-sidedness  of  the  ancients,  the  tendency  of 
ancient  education  to  fritter  away  its  strength  on  a  multiplicity 
of  matters,  the  dabbling  in  all  fields,  offered  little  attraction  to 
early  Christian  educators,  as  they  were  alive  to  the  errors  to 
which  the  subjective  mind  is  liable.  They  recognized  that  this 
smattering  of  all  knowledge  involved  an  abuse  of  God's  gifts. 
The  truths  of  Faith  are  the  centre;  they  must  be  received  ab- 
solutely; and  their  objective  nature  is  such  as  to  admit  of  no 
change  in  favor  of  any  subjective  opinion.  The  glad  tidings 
announcing  the  coming  of  the  great  King  among  the  children 
of  men  and  the  truths  proclaimed  by  Christ,  His  apostles,  and 
His  Church,  are  a  precious  inheritance  that  must  be  faithfully 
conserved  and  transmitted  to  future  generations.  The  mind 
a,nd  feelings  may  and  should  dwell  on  this  content,  but  no  man 
may  ever  presume  to  apply  to  it  any  standard  lower  than 
itself.1  But  in  this  way  the  subject-matter  of  teaching  is  again 
endowed  with  that  objectivity  by  'virtue  of  which  it  is,  not 
merely  the  instrument  of  education,  but  its  content  as  well; 
and  the  narrow  view  of  the  Sophist,  which  obtained,  at  least 
to  some  extent,  among  the  Greeks,  that  man  is  the  measure  of 
all  things,  is  abandoned.  Still,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
Christian  nations  have  occasionally,  in  the  course  of  later  devel- 
opments, gone  to  the  opposite  extreme  by  teaching  what  was 
much  akin  to  the  view  of  early  oriental  theology,  that  man  is 
only  the  vessel  for  holding  and  receiving  a  certain  educational 
content.  This  erroneous  doctrine  has,  at  different  times,  led 
to  the  revival  of  the  subjectivity  of  the  ancients.  But  the 
Christian  view,  rightly  understood,  combines  properly  both  ele- 
ments: first,  the  objectivity  of  the  content  and,  secondly,  the 
demand  to  make  this  objective  matter  a  vital  element  of  the 
inner  life.  And  it  is  this  Christian  view  which  has  had  to  serve 
again  and  again  as  the  corrective  of  the  mistaken  relationship 
of  the  two  factors. 

As  Christianity  emphasized,  in  contrast  to  the  subjective 
and  sesthetical  trend  of  the  ancients,  the  discipline  of  truth 
inherent  in  all  teaching  and  learning,  so  it  has  also  established 
the  love  and  care  of  souls  as  the  chief  motive  for  conserving 
and  transmitting  knowledge.  Consequently,  the  ancient  love 
of  fame  and  glory  was  no  longer  the  principal  consideration; 

1  "  Keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy  trust,  avoiding  the  profane  nov- 
elties of  words,  and  oppositions  of  knowledge  falsely  so  called. "  (I.  Tim.  6,  20.) 
Faith  is  a  "good  thing  committed  in  trust"  (II.  Tim.  i,  13  and  14),  a  "treas- 
ure" (II.  Cor.  4,  7). 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  177 

and  ambition,  the  prime  force  in  ancient  education,  lost  much 
of  its  power  with  Christian  peoples. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


The  Content  of  Early  Christian  Education. 

i.  The  content  of  early  Christian  education  was,  to  a  large 
extent,  taken  over  from  the  educational  system  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  but  was  considerably  modified  by  coming  into 
contact  with  the  ideals  of  the  new  religion.  The  process  of 
developing  and  organizing  this  content  resembles  the  educational 
development  of  those  eastern  peoples  whose  intellectual  life 
sprang  from  the  national  religions.  But  in  the  latter  case  the 
flexibility  of  the  myths  and  the  mythological  philosophy  facil- 
itated the  educational  development  from  the  heathen  reli- 
gions. A  further  favorable  circumstance  was  the  fact  that  the 
national  consciousness  of  these  eastern  peoples  was  the  instru- 
ment as  well  as  the  end  of  their  educational  development.  The 
growth,  however,  of  Christian  education  lacked  these  favorable 
conditions;  the  Faith  that  was  its  foundation  is  not  born  of 
myths,  nor  of  poetry,  nor  of  a  poetic  philosophy;  neither  was 
it  connected  with  any  definite  nationality  or  any  one  language. 
The  spirit  of  Christianity  was  obliged  first  to  assimilate  from 
the  civilization,  in  the  midst  of  which  it  found  itself,  all  the 
elements  of  which  it  stood  in  need,  in  order  to  create  its  own 
language,  literature,  science,  art,  and  education;  and  to  accom- 
plish this  gigantic  task,  a  force  was  needed,  infinitely  more 
powerful  than  any  that  had  been  operative  in  the  ancient  civili- 
zations of  either  the  eastern  or  the  western  peoples. 

Still  it  must  be  conceded  that  there  were  also  certain  favor- 
able circumstances,  yet  these  were  of  such  a  nature  as  again 
offered  special  difficulties;  and  consequently  even  the  favorable 
circumstances  tested  the  creative  power  of  Christianity.  The 
two  world  languages,  Greek  and  Latin,  were  an  obvious  advan- 
tage: the  Greek  language  prevailed  in  the  East,  and  after  several 
centuries  of  growth  and  development,  it  was  now  a  well-nigh 
perfect  medium  for  the  expression  of  thought;  the  Latin  lan- 
guage, the  language  of  conciseness  and  strength,  of  exactness 
and  precision,  prevailed  in  the  West.  But  these  languages  had 
12 


178  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

to  be  adapted  to  the  new  doctrines  which  had  found  first  ex- 
pression in  a  Semitic,  and  therefore  essentially  different,  tongue; 
and  the  Christian  coinage  of  Greek  and  Latin  words  deserves 
to  be  called  a  creative  process.  The  flexibility  of  the  Greek 
language  was  of  invaluable  advantage  for  expressing  the  new 
concepts:  "The  cultured  Greek  took  a  special  delight  in  apply- 
ing all  the  resources  of  his  wondrous  language,  with  all  its  nice- 
ties, to  any  concept  that  met  his  eager  and  searching  mind,  and 
it  was  natural  that  he  would  address  his  questions  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  thus  elicit  many  a  reply."  Yet  the  over- 
refinement  and  the  dialectical  subtleties  of  the  Greek  offered 
as  many  difficulties  as  advantages,  and  neither  its  brilliant 
rainbow  hues,  nor  the  penetrating  light  shed  by  the  Latin  lan- 
guage on  all  the  objects  of  the  earth,  sufficed  by  themselves  to 
illumine  the  depths  that  the  new  doctrines  disclosed. 

These  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  Greek  and  Latin 
obviously  affected  those  sciences  that  dealt  with  these  lan- 
guages: grammar,  rhetoric,  and  dialectic.  However,  the  formal 
character  of  these  subjects  facilitated  their  assimilation.  In  as 
far  as  they  tended  to  make  human  speech  pure,  fluent,  and 
effective,  they  performed  as  great  a  service  to  the  preacher  of 
the  Gospel  as  to  the  secular  orator.  Still  their  close  connection 
with  a  literature  and  a  system  of  poetics  whose  content  was 
foreign  and  even  hostile  to  the  ideals  of  Christianity,  stamped 
the  heathen  character  on  the  sciences  themselves.  They  were 
Christianized  first  on  Greek  soil,  whence  they  had  sprung,  and 
only  much  later  on  Roman  soil,  where  a  further  difficulty  pre- 
sented itself  in  their  being  so  closely  related  to  the  laws  and 
the  government  of  the  State.  It  is  surprising  how  long  it  took 
to  adapt  these  sciences  to  a  Christian  content.  It  might  seem 
that  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  distinguished,  as  they  are,  for 
fiery  eloquence,  brilliant  figures,  and  cogent  argumentation, 
could  have  proved  the  basis  of  a  new  system  of  rhetoric  and 
dialectic.  But  technical  systems  have  a  most  tenacious  life, 
and  it  is  by  far  easier  to  change  the  language  and  literature  of 
a  people  than  to  supply  a  new  organon  for  them.  Nay,  these 
sciences  have  up  to  the  present  successfully  withstood  all  at- 
tempts at  a  thorough  reformation,  so  that  even  to-day — though 
we  have  at  our  command  comparative  philology  and  other 
sciences  sufficient  to  revise  the  laws  governing  language,  style, 
and  the  operations  of  the  mind — we  are  still  bound  to  the  for- 


1  J.  A.  Mohler,  Patrologie^  Ratisbon,  1 840,  I,  p.  37. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY    CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  179 

mulas  of  the  ancients,  just  as  though  Aristotle  and  the  Alex- 
andrians had  decided  all  these  matters  for  good  and  all. 

2.  It  was  an  easier  matter  to  correlate  the  mathematical 
•sciences  with  the  Christian  content.  Geometry  and  arithmetic 
appeared  almost  indifferent  to  the  great  disputes  of  theology 
and  philosophy.  Music,  instrumental  and  theoretical,  astronomy, 
and  the  science  of  the  calendar  were  readily  adjusted  to  the 
service  of  the  Church.  The  text  of  Scripture,  "Thou  hast 
ordered  all  things  in  measure  and  number  and  weight,"1  became 
the  guiding  star  of  these  studies,  and  this  was  no  departure  from 
the  spirit  in  which  they  had  been  conducted  by  the  ancients. 
It  was  a  particular  advantage  that  the  ancients  had  generally 
assigned  to  the  mathematical  sciences  a  merely  preparatory 
function.  They  had  regarded  them  as  preparatory  to  philos- 
ophy, and  Christianity  now  set  up  theology  as  their  goal,  which 
step  involved  no  material  change,  because  even  with  the  Greeks 
the  theological  aim  had  been  the  final  end  of  mathematical 
studies.2  The  demands  of  ecclesiastical  writers  that  arithmetic 
occupy  itself  with  the  mysteries  of  numbers  and  with  the  figures 
quoted  in  the  Bible,  that  geometry  should  deal  with  Biblical 
and  ecclesiastical  measurements,  and  that  astronomy  study  ep- 
ochs and  the  cycles  of  feasts  —  these  demands  might,  at  first 
blush,  appear  foreign  to  the  proper  functions  of  these  sciences; 
but  they  will  no  longer  appear  so  if  we  recall  that,  in  the  East, 
mathematics  was  originally  considered  an  auxiliary  science  of 
theology  and  was  taken  up  with  just  such  subjects  as  those 
mentioned,8  and  that,  in  the  West,  the  Pythagoreans  and  Pla- 
tonists  preserved  the  tradition  that  priests  were  the  founders 
of  mathematics. 

Philology  was  ,  studied  by  the  early  Christian  less  for  its 
cultural  value  than  out  of  sheer  necessity:  it  embraced  the 
history,  the  myths,  and  antiquities  of  heathenism,  and  its  mas- 
tery was  thus  indispensable  for  any  successful  controversy  with 
the  heathen.  Equipped  with  a  knowledge  of  philology,  the 
Christian  apologist  could,  on  the  one  hand,  show  the  foolishness 
and  inconsistency  of  old  and  recent  myths  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  establish  the  consensus  gentium  by  pointing  to  the  traces 
found  among  all  peoples  of  the  primitive  revelation.  To  the 
industry  of  ecclesiastical  writers  who  worked  with  these  ends 


1  Wisdom,  xi,  21. 

2  Cf.  supra,  ch.  IX,  5. 

3  Supra,  ch.  IV,  3  and  ch.  V,  3. 


l8O  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

in  view,  we  are  indebted  for  much  of  our  knowledge  of  classical 
antiquity.  For  instance,  the  account  given  by  Clement  of 
Alexandria  of  Egyptian  literature  is  the  safest  guide  extant 
among  all  the  discordant  reports  concerning  this  dark  field;1 
and  the  picture  of  Varro,  so  unique  a  character  in  the  univer- 
sality of  his  researches,  has  been  preserved  by  Augustine.2  The 
introduction  of  such  matters  into  the  theological  writings  was 
also  of  educational  value  to  the  early  Christians,  for  in  this 
way  they  became  acquainted  with  choice  elements  of  ancient 
education. 

The  Christians  were  from  the  first  deeply  interested  in  his- 
tory, for  the  "fullness  of  time"  represented  to  them  the  down- 
fall of  many  nations  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  They  were  interested  in  the  history  of 
the  East  as  well  as  of  Greece  and  Rome:  the  first  formed  the 
background  for  the  history  of  the  Chosen  People;  and  the  latter, 
the  background  for  the  history  of  the  Church.  Thus  the  im- 
pulse was  given  to  write  Christian  history.  But  the  written 
histories  were  assisted  by  other  forces  in  keeping  alive  the 
historical  interest.  The  very  content  of  the  Christian  religion 
suggests,  like  that  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  the  style  of  historical 
presentation,  and  this  circumstance  led  St.  Augustine  to  adopt 
his  historico-genetic  plan  of  studies,  in  which  "the  heart  and 
the  lips  would  never  lose  the  thread  of  the  narrative,  because 
the  latter  would  prove  the  string  of  gold  for  holding  the  pearls 
of  the  doctrines."  This  historical  character  of  the  teaching 
content  had  to  react  favorably  on  the  growth  of  the  historical 
sense  in  general.  The  study  of  history  was  also  encouraged 
by  the  efforts  made  to  preserve  the  memory  of  the  Martyrs, 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  vital  solidarity  with  these 
heroes.  Even  in  the  first  centuries  the  Church  began  to  com- 
memorate her  joys  and  sorrows,  her  victories  and  persecutions, 
for  she  considered  all  these  inseparably  connected  with  the 
glorious  records  of  her  martyred  Saints.  This  veneration  of 
the  saints  has,  like  the  Greek  cult  of  the  national  heroes,  in- 
spired the  fine  arts,  and  has  deepened  and  ennobled  the  soul  of 
the  whole  Christian  world. 

•  3.  The  assimilation  of  philosophy,  the  capstone  of  ancient 
culture,  with  Christian  education  was  a  most  difficult  process: 
heathen  philosophy  furnished  the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  with 

1  Supra,  ch.  V,  i . 

2  Supra,  ch.  XII,  4. 

3  De  catech.  rudibus,  c.  6. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY   CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  l8l 

weapons   and   the   heretics    with    arguments  against  the  Faith. 
The  other  departments    of   knowledge    resembled  fields  where 
the  new  plants,  though  frail  and  weak  in  the  beginning,  would 
eventually    supplant   the    vegetation    of  an   older   and   strong- 
er growth.     Heathen   philosophy,   however,  was  rather  like   a 
fortress  which  the  Christians  had  to  take  by  storm  before  they 
could  think  of  assimilating  its  good  elements.     This  assimilation 
implied  not  a  mere  taking  over  of  new  and  foreign  elements; 
nay,  the  whole  system  must  needs  be  made  over  and  re-created 
in  its  entirety.     One  circumstance  favorable  to  the  Christian 
apologist  was  the  fact  that  the  tenets  held  by  the  various  schools 
of  philosophy  were  frequently  diametrically  opposed  to  one  an- 
other.   Another  favorable  circumstance  was,  that  there  existed 
no  one  school  of  philosophy  but  taught  some  'truths  that  were 
closely  related  to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.     The  transcen- 
dental philosophy  of  the  Platonists  appeared,  in  the  beginning, 
to  come  nearest  to  the  supernatural  doctrines  of  Christianity. 
But  as  the  struggle  continued  and  as  the  dogmatic  and  philo- 
sophic position  of  Christianity  became  more  clearly  defined,  it 
was  found  that  just  the  ancient  philosophers  of  a  predominantly 
ethical  or  religious   turn   were   the  most  insidious   foes  of  the 
Christian  religion.     They  represented,  indeed,  the  highest  form 
of  heathenism,  yet  withal  its  most  dangerous  form  also;  and 
thus  Plato,  the  Attic-speaking  Moses,  Mwucre?  OLTTIKL^WV,  could 
later  be  decried  as  the  father  of  all  heresies.     Tt  is  a  noteworthy 
fact   that  expiring  heathenism   clung  tenaciously   to   the  most 
abstruse  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  Plato  and  Pythagoras,  and 
sought  among  their   teachings   for  the  remains  of  earlier  and 
more   simple   beliefs.     But   Christian   philosophy   accepted   the 
supernatural  at  the  hands  of  Faith  and  chose  as  its  guide  in 
earthly  matters   the  sober  clearness  and  keenness  of  the  far- 
seeing  and  matter-of-fact  Aristotle. 

It  was  no  light  labor,  and  one  of  not  a  few  generations,  to 
assimilate  the  content  of  heathen  education.  There  were  seasons 
when  the  champions  of  the  Christian  cause  grew  faint  of  heart; 
then  again  they  were  elated  with  sudden  and  unlocked  for 
success.  At  times  all  their  efforts  seemed  to  be  naught  but 
much  ado  about  nothing,  while  at  other  times  they  grew  elo- 
quent with  the  supreme  importance  of  the  struggle.  Much  of 
what  the  early  Christian  writers  wrote  goes  to  show  the  heat 
of  the  strife  and  the  varying  moods  of  the  parties  engaged. 
The  literature  of  the  early  Church  reveals  such  widely  divergent 
opinions,  that  certain  writers  have  found  in  it  authorities  in 


1 82  CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION  ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

support  of  their  view  that  the  Church  was  soon  reconciled  to 
the  ancient  philosophies,  while  writers  of  another  school  have 
likewise  drawn  from  it  arguments  in  support  of  their  claim  that 
Christianity  looked  with  suspicion  and  even  scorn  on  all  ancient 
learning.1  But  it  is  this  very  divergency  of  views  which  should 
have  opened  the  eyes  of  the  student  of  history  to  read  the  signs 
of  the  times,  as  indicating  the  shifting  of  opinions  and  as  be- 
tokening an  intellectual  and  spiritual  crisis — the  greatest  crisis, 
in  fact,  in  the  history  of  education. 

4.  The  Greek-speaking  East  showed,  in  general,  more  readi- 
ness than  the  West  to  assimilate'  ancient  education  with  the 
new  religion.  The  Greek  theologians  of  the  period  received 
their  secular  education  at  the  old  and  venerable  seats  of  learn- 
ing; their  teachers  were,  in  some  cases,  celebrated  representa- 
tives of  the  heathen  sciences;  and  the  theologians  themselves 
realized,  that  they  could  not  meet  the  heathen  and  the  heretic 
on  their  own  ground  unless  they  were  masters  of  the  secular 
learning.  Consequently,  they  defend  the  view  that  the  Chris- 
tian can  and  should  assimilate  the  culture  of  the  heathen;  and 
they  entertain  little  doubt  that  the  difficulty  presented  by  its 
polytheistic  element  can  easily  be  overcome.  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria (died  217),  the  famous  head  of  the  catechetical  school 
of  the  same  city,  was  the  first  to  combine  the  Christian  and 
heathen  studies  in  one  system.  The  liberal  arts  form  the  lowest 
class,  the  philosophical  sciences  occupy  the  middle  place,  and 
the  studies  dealing  with  Christian  Doctrine  are  supreme  in  rank 
and  importance.  A  graded  course  of  study  prepares  for  the 
last-named  subject,  and  this  preparatory  course  Clement  com- 
pares with  the  propaedeutics  of  the  Pythagoreans.2  The  course 
embraces  the  controversies  with  heathenism,  the  refutation  of 
heathen  errors,  the  directions  for  Christian  living,  and  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity  joined  with  the  purer  teachings  of 
the  heathen.  This  system  of  propaedeutics  forms  the  substance 
of  the  three  chief  works  of  Clement:  Hortatory  Discourse  to  the 
Greeks  (Adyo?  Trpor/DeTrriKo?),  The  Tutor  (IlatSaywyd?),  and  Mis- 
cellanies (Sr/aeej/aarei?).  While  Clement  adopted  the  methods  of 
the  eclectic,  Origen  (died  254),  his  successor,  allowed  the  ancient 
learning  as  a  whole  to  serve  as  a  system  of  propaedeutics:  he 

1  The  first  view  is  taken  among  others  by  C.  Daniel,  Des  etudes  classiques 
dans  la  societe  Chrelienne  (1853);  and  the  second,  by  Abbe  Gaume,  Le  ver 
ron^uer  des  societes  modernes  (1851)  (tr.  by  R.  Hill,  Paganism  in  Education, 
London,  1852). 

2  Strom.,  VII,  p.  845. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  183 

conducted  his  pupils  through  dialectic,  natural  philosophy,  math- 
ematics, and  astronomy  to  ethics;  then  he  returned  to  the  phi- 
losophers and  poets,  employing  an  artist's  skill  in  unraveling 
the  tangled  skein  to  detect  the  subtle  errors.  Only  after  all 
this  ground  had  been  gone  over,  did  he  begin  the  explanation 
of  Holy  Writ,  and  here  he  distinguished  carefully  between  the 
literal,  moral,  and  mystical  sense.1 

Similar  cases  of  the  mastery  of  the  diversified  learning  of 
the  age  were  not  rare.  Instances  in  point  are  Dorotheus  (about 
300),  presbyter  at  Antioch  and  a  Hebrew  scholar,  and  Anatolius, 
bishop  of  Laodicea,  to  whom  the  Alexandrians  offered  the  rec- 
torship of  their  Peripatetic  school2.  There  are,  however,  other 
instances  evidencing  that  ancient  philosophy  was  a  hindrance 
to  the  perfect  development  of  Christian  philosophy.  Stephanus 
of  Laodicea,  for  example,  proved  at  the  time  of  the  persecution 
neither  a  staunch  Christian  nor  a  consistent  philosopher;3  and 
even  the  great  Origen  was  charged  with  having  compromised 
between  Christian  theology  and  heathen  philosophy. 

5.  The  much-quoted  oration  of  St.  Basil,  Address  to  Young 
Men  on  the  Right  Use  of  Greek  Literature^  treats  professedly  of 
the  attitude  of  Christian  youth  toward  classical  literature.  Em- 
ploying a  comparison  found  in  Plato,  Basil  describes  pagan 
literature  as  the  material  on  which  the  young  men  are  to  exer- 
cise the  eyes  of  their  mind.  Pagan  literature  should  prepare, 
like  shadows  and  mirrors,  the  eye  for  beholding  the  truths  of 
Scripture.  Christian  wisdom  is  the  choice  fruit  of  the  soul, 
while  secular  learning  (KOO-^LKIJ  TraiSetct,  7rat8ev/x,ara  ra  e£a)6ev) 
is  the  foliage  that  protects  and  gives  a  pleasant  appearance  to 
the  fruit.  Moses  and  Daniel  frequented  the  schools  respectively 
of  Egyptian  and  Chaldean  sages,  and  were,  therefore,  pupils  of 
pagan  philosophers.  The  works  of  the  poets  may  well  elevate 
our  feelings  and  infuse  into  our  souls  the  respect  for  all  that  is 
noble  and  righteous.  One  who  is  familiar  with  Homer  claims 
that  all  his  works  are  one  hymn  in  praise  of  virtue,  and  the 
poets,  historians,  and  other  representatives  of  the  OvpaBev  cro(/>ia 
have  written  in  a  kindred  spirit.  All  these  works  should  be 
used  as  the  bee  uses  the  flowers:  the  bee  neither  visits  all  flowers 
nor  does  it  ever  attempt  to  carry  off  a  whole  plant;  it  takes  of 
the  single  flower  only  so  much  as  it  finds  useful  and  leaves  the 


1  Greg.  Thaum.,  Paneg.  in  Orig.,  c.  5  sq. 

2  Euseb.,  Hist,  ecd.,  VII,  c.  32. 

3  Ibid.,  c.  33. 


184  CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION  ON   ROMAN  SOIL. 

rest.1  As  we  beware  of  the  thorns  when  plucking  a  rose  from 
the  bush,  so  we  should  select  from  these  works  what  is  useful, 
but  beware  of  anything  that  might  prove  harmful.  We  must 
from  the  very  beginning  examine  all  learning  and  try  to  har- 
monize it  with  our  final  aim,  or  as  the  Doric  proverb  says,  "  test 
each  stone  by  the  measuring  line. " 

The  countryman  and  fellow-student  of  St.  Basil,  St.  Gregory 
of  Nazianzus,  is  more  emphatic  in  insisting  on  the  necessity  of 
secular  studies,  as  we  may  see  from  his  funeral  oration  on  his 
departed  friend.  Here  we  have  exact  information  relative  to 
the  status  of  studies  in  that  age.  In  the  eleventh  chapter  we 
read:  "I  think  that  all  wise  men  will  agree  that  education  is 
our  most  valuable  gift,  and  this  is  true  not  only  of  the  sublime 
education  proper  to  us  Christians — which  can  neglect  the  orna- 
ments of  style  and  attend  solely  to  the  salvation  of  men  and 
the  beauty  of  truth — but  also  of  pagan  education,  though  this 
is  looked  upon  by  most  Christians  as  harmful  and  as  leading 
away  from  God.  We  need  not  scorn  heaven,  earth,  and  air, 
and  all  that  belongs  to  these  elements,  because  men  have  been 
so  foolish  as  to  pay  divine  honors  to  these  works  of  the  Lord. 
On  the  contrary,  we  may  use  them  for  our  needs  and  comfort, 
though  we  must  avoid  the  while  all  that  might  bring  harm  to 
ourselves,  and  never  sink  so  low  as  to  prefer 'the  creature  to  its 
Creator,  but  rather  discover  in  the  work  the  hand  and  the 
power  of  the  Architect  and  surrender  up  our  minds  and  wills 
to  the  willing  obedience  of  Christ.  Similarly,  must  we  use  the 
pagan  learning  which  occupied  itself  with  the  study  and  inves- 
tigation of  things,  though  we  must  here,  too,  shun  all  that 
might  lead  to  error  or  perdition.  The  pagan  learning  may  be 
employed  to  the  best  of  purposes.  Of  itself  it  is  indifferent, 
just  as  fire  and  food  and  iron  or  any  other  things  are  not  of 
themselves  useful  or  harmful,  but  the  use  or  abuse  makes  them 
so,  as  even  worms,  if  mixed  with  a  drug,  may  give  it  a  medicinal 
power.  By  taking  over  the  learning  of  the  heathen  our  fear  of 
the  Lord  has  been  much  increased:  by  noting  what  was  of  minor 
value  we  have  come  to  have  an  eye  for  what  is  of  the  greatest 
value,  and  the  impotence  of  the  heathen  has  supplied  our  Faith 
with  a  strong  support.  We  may,  therefore,  not  make  light  of 
education,  though  many  are  inclined  so  to  do;  the  probable 
reason  for  their  narrowness  being  their  own  dullness  and  igno- 

1  The  comparison  of  the  bees  has  been  much  used  in  Christian  pedagogy 
and  has  given  rise  to  the  pun:  "Si  sapis,  sis  apis." 

2  rt>v  \l0ov  irorl  vir&prov  Ayeiv. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  185 

ranee  which  they  would  fain  conceal  before  others  by  making 
all  like  themselves,  so  that  their  own  illiteracy  would  pass  un- 
noticed amid  the  universal  ignorance."  But  this  clear  and 
unmistakable  commendation  of  education  presupposes  that — as 
had  been  the  case  in  Gregory's  own  youth — "the  heart  be 
strong  and  surrounded  by  a  strong  wall"  in  order  that  the 
Faith  of  the  Christian  remain  sweet  and  pure,  like  the  River 
Alpheus  (whose  water  is  said  to  remain  sweet  while  flowing 
through  the  Ionian  Sea),  and  reject  all  harmful  foreign  ele- 
ments. (Ibid.,.c.  22. *) 

Led  by  the  same  reasons,  St.  John  Chrysostom  did  not 
permit  the  mythological  fables  to  be  read  during  the  first  period 
of  schooling,  for  this  might  result,  as  he  says,  in  an  admiration 
of  such  heroes  as  were  not  able  to  control  their  passions.2  The 
instruction  in  the  elements  of  Christian  Doctrine  had  marked 
the  beginning  of  his  own  education,  but  later  his  mother  An- 
thusa,  who  directed  his  training,  did  hot  hesitate  to  commit 
the  rhetorical  training  of  the  mature  youth  to  the  care  of  Li- 
banius,  the  celebrated  Sophist  and  defender  of  heathenism. 

6.  The  difficulties  attendant  upon  the  assimilation  of  ancient 
education  were  still  greater  in  the  West  than  in  the  East.  This 
was  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  for  Roman  education,  being  at 
best  but  an  exotic  growth,  was  controlled  even  more  than  Greek 
education  by  rhetoric  and  polite  literature.  A  further  reason 
was  that  philosophy  offered  the  Greeks  a  goal  that  was  some- 
what akin  in  its  idealism  to  the  noble  spirituality  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  while  the  end-all  of  Roman  education  was  the 
profession  of  the  advocate,  which  could  not,  in  spite  of  its  scien- 
tific basis  (the  result  of  the  development  of  Roman  law),  prove 
a  fountainhead  for  the  ideals  of  the  higher  life.  To  understand 
the  opposition  of  the  Latin  Fathers  to  literary  affectation,  we 
must  remember  that  some  pagan  rulers  were  even  more  strongly 
opposed  to  it  than  they.  For  example,  Licinius,  at  first  the 
co-regent  and  then  the  enemy  of  Constantine,  describes  literary 
education  as  a  poison  and  pestilence  to  the  State.3  The  artificial 
and  stilted  taste  of  the  homines  literati  could  not  appreciate  the 
greatness  and  simplicity  of  the  Scriptures,  and  these  aesthetes 
were  more  apt  than  the  cultured  Greeks  to  scorn  the  inspired 
volume  as  barbarous.  The  phrases:  Ciceronianus — Christianus, 

1  Cf.  K.  Weiss,  Die  Erziehungslehre  der  drei  Kappadozier,  Freiburg,  1903. 

2  Homil.  21  in  epist.  ad  Rphes. 

3  Burckhardt,    Die  Zeit  Konstantins  des  Grosseny  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1880, 
P-  327- 


1 86  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION   ON  ROMAN  SOIL.  , 

disertus — desertus  cullura  Dei,  were  thought  to  imply  an  irrecon- 
cilable opposition;  and  among  the  Christians  even  professed 
imitators  of  classical  models — as  St.  Ambrose,  whose  De  officiis 
ministrorum  is  patterned  after  Cicero's  De  officiis^  and  the  bril- 
liant stylist  Lactantius — warned  their  co-religionists  against  a 
devotion  to  secular  studies.1  Speaking  of  mythology,  Minucius 
Felix  says,  "These  fables  we  learn  from  our  unlettered  parents, 
nay,  what  is  still  worse,  they  are  the  material  with  which  we 
are  constantly  occupied  in  our  studies  and  in  our  schools,  espe- 
cially when  reading  the  poets,  whose  great  influence  has  been 
most  instrumental  in  preventing  the  spread  of  truth.  Hence 
Plato  justly  banished  Homer,  though  celebrated  and  much  ad- 
mired, from  the  State."2  St.  Jerome  vehemently  opposed  the 
cult  of  pagan  authors,  for  to  his  mind  there  could  be  as  little 
intercourse  between  them  and  the  Faith  of  Christ  as  between 
Christ  and  Belial,  and  as  between  the  chalice  of  the  Lord  and 
the  cup  of  the  demons.  He  tried  to  purge  his  style  of  all  ancient 
reminiscences,  but  had  to  confess  that  dire  necessity,  and  not 
his  free  choice,  forced  him  to  tolerate  them  occasionally.3  The 
character  of  St.  Jerome  as  well  as  certain  circumstances  of  his 
life  must  be  taken  into  account  in  judging  his  passionate  on- 
slaught on  the  classical  studies.  The  climax  of  his  attacks  on 
the  classics  is  reached  in  the  report  he  gives  of  a  vision  he  had 
in  the  desert  and  during  which  the  divine  Judge  hurled  at  his 
head  the  sentence,  "Thou  art  Cicero's,  and  not  Christ's." 
But  if  we  consider  the  time,  the  place,  and  the  situation,  we 
shall  better  understand  this  fierce  antagonism:  Jerome  had  re- 
tired to  the  desert  for  the  purpose  of  solitary  study  and  medi- 
tation; his  mind  craved  continuous  occupation,  and  he  had 
taken  along  from  Rome  a  goodly  number  of  books,  among 
them  the  writings  of  Cicero  and  Plautus;  and  seeking  at  once 
both  occupation  and  peace  of  soul,  the  hermit  would  turn  from 
the  Roman  classics  to  the  Hebrew  prophets,  thus  allowing  his 
mind  no  rest  whatever,  and  a  crisis  was  inevitable.  The  earlier 
exaggerated  views  of  Jerome  must  be  corrected  in  the  light  of 
his  later  utterances,  wherein  he  openly  admitted  that  the  Chris- 
tian writer  must  needs  be  familiar  with  ancient  literature,  and 

1  Gaume,  Paganism  in  Education,  London,  1852,  p.  67. 

2  Minucius  Felix,  Oct.,  23. 

3  "  Si  quando  cogimur  litterarum  sacularium  recordari  et  aliqua  ex  his  dicere: 
non  nostrce  sit  voluntatis,  sed,  ut  ita  dicam,  gravissimce  necessitatis. "    Pro/eg,  in 
Dan.  (Gaume,  1.  c.,  p.  71,  note). 

4  Ep.  22  ad  Eustachium,  c.  30  (Vallarsi). 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  187 

that  he  may  freely  quote  pagan  authors.  In  a  letter  to  the 
Rhetorician  Magnus,  he  enumerates  all  that  the  champions  of 
Christ,  St.  Paul  included,  had  borrowed  from  secular  writers.1 
7.  However,  the  most  complete  picture  of  the  gigantic  strug- 
gle between  ancient  education  and  the  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  may  be  witnessed  in  the  case  of  the  greatest  Doctor 
of  the  early  Church,  St.  Augustine.2  Here  the.  conflict  extends 
over  the  Saint's  entire  life,  which  was  so  rich  in  years  and  labors. 
In  his  youth  Augustine  delighted  in  classical  poetry;  he  followed 
the  wanderings  of  Aeneas  and  wept  over  the  death  of  Dido. 
Without  a  teacher  he  mastered  the  liberal  arts,  and  soon  taught 
them  in  his  own  school.  Cicero's  Hortensius  set  his  soul  aglow 
with  an  eager  longing  for  immortal  wisdom;  and  what  first 
struck  him  in  the  sermons  of  St.  Ambrose,  was  their  perfection 
of  form.  But  when  the  hour  of  his  conversion  had  struck  and 
when  his  soul,  new-born,  first  saw  the  light  of  Faith,  he  turned 
on  all  that  had  hitherto  filled  his  life  and  condemned  the  whole 
system  of  secular  education:  "Such  madness,  then,  is  looked 
upon  as  a  more  honorable  and  a  more  useful  study  than  reading 
and  writing. "  '  Yet  the  wealth  of  learning  and  the  polished 
form,  acquired  in  his  early  years,  stood  the  Saint  in  good  need 
in  the  continuous  controversy  that  was  now  to  ensue.  The 
philosophy  of  the  Greeks  encouraged  him  to  go  deep  in  his  own 
reasonings  and  researches,  and  the  familiarity  with  the  Latin 
classics  contributed  not  a  little  to  make  his  language  so  splendid 
and  incisive  an  element.  The  admirers  of  St.  Augustine  have 
justly  noted  in  his  works,  over  and  above  their  sublime  Chris- 
tian content,  some  of  the  grandeur  of  ancient  Rome,  and  this 
grandeur  of  his  style  and  manner  had  a  special  charm  for  Charle- 
magne, just  as  it  later  led  the  first  Humanists,  Petrarch,  Vives, 
and  Erasmus,  to  regard  his  writings  as  bridging  the  gulf  between 
Christianity  and  antiquity.  Concerning  the  value  of  ancient 
education,  he  has  given  expression  to  contradictory  views;  and 
in  trying  to  get  at  his  true  mind  we  must  tike  into  account 
the  circumstances  that  called  forth  the  respective  book  as  well 
as  its  aim,  for  these  factors  will  necessarily  modify  the  views 
expressed.  The  clearest  and  most  dispassionate  treatment  of 
the  subject  is  found  in  the  work  De  Doctrina  Christiana  (Book 
II,  written  about  396),  where  St.  Augustine  outlines,  from  the 

1  Ep.  70  ad  Magnum,  c.  3-5 ;  cf.  Ecclesiastical  Review,  LXI  (191 9),  pp.  266-269. 

2  Cf.  Fr.  X.  Eggersdorfer,  Der  heilige  Augustinus  ah  Padagoge,  Freiburg, 
1907;  Spalding,  The  Influence  of  St.  Augustine's  Teaching,  New  York,  1886. 

3  Conf.,  I,  13. 


188  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION   ON  ROMAN  SOIL. 

viewpoint  of  Holy  Writ,  a  system  of  secular  studies  that  has 
exercised  upon  the  succeeding  ages  a  powerful  influence.1  The 
basic  thought  of  the  whole  inquiry  is  that  the  honest  and  right- 
eous man  will  gratefully  receive  any  truth,  no  matter  where  it 
be  found,  as  coming  from  the  hands  of  God.  An  error  connected, 
through  the  fault  of  man,  with  a  truth  should  not  prejudice  us 
against  the  truth  itself:  we  do  not  shrink  from  learning  the 
alphabet,  though  the  invention  of  the  letters  is  ascribed  to 
Mercury.  The  arts  and  sciences  of  the  pagans  are  partly  human 
inventions  and  partly  imitations  of  realities,  ;'.  £.,  of  works  of 
God,  which  have  been  rightly  traced  back  by  the  pagans  them- 
selves to  the  deity.  The  works  of  man  are  partly  reprehensible, 
e.  g.,  haruspicy,  astrology,  etc.,  and  partly  dispensable,  as  the 
mass  of  fables,  of  fictions, .and  meaningless  pictures  and  statues; 
but  partly  they  are  necessary,  as  the  entire  apparatus  of  social 
life:  weight,  measure,  money,  written  and  spoken  language,  etc. 
The  studies  that  are  concerned  with  realities  deal  partly  with 
the  concrete  and  partly  with  the  abstract.  Of  the  sciences 
dealing  with  the  concrete,  history  easily  stands  first,  for  though 
concerned  with  human  activities,  it  is  not  a  human  invention, 
as  all  happenings  are  controlled  by  the  Lord,  who  shapes  the 
course  of  the  world.  The  descriptive  sciences,  natural  history 
and  astronomy,  are  closely  related  to  history.  The  technico- 
empirical  sciences,  as  medicine,  agriculture,  political  economy, 
mechanics  and  gymnastics,  are  co-ordinate  with  the  descriptive 
sciences.  A  superficial  acquaintance  with  these  sciences  will 
enable  one  to  pass  an  opinion  on  them  and  to  understand  the 
passages  of  Sacred  Scripture  that  deal  with  these  matters. 
However,  our  vocation  may  necessitate  a  more  exact  knowledge 
of  these  sciences.  Dialectic,  rhetoric,  and  mathematics  are  the 
abstract  sciences.  Dialectic  is  not  man's  work,  because  he  has 
not  invented  the  rules  and  modes  of  reasoning,  and  the  mis- 
application of  them  by  the  individual  does  not  invalidate  them. 
Rhetoric  is  dialectic  applied  to  language;  the  rules  for  attract- 
ing, holding,  and  persuading  an  audience  are  likewise  based  on 
laws  that  do  not  date  from  men.  These  sciences  can  not  dis- 
pense with  common  sense,  which  is  the  common  foundation  of 
all  their  minute  rules.  They  are  a  source  of  exquisite  and 
elevating  pleasure,  and  train  the  mind,  and  are,  therefore,  useful 
so  long  as  their  pursuit  does  not  degenerate  (a  common  danger) 

1  "He  (St.  Augustine),  no  infallible  teacher,  has  formed  the  intellect  of 
Christian  Europe."  Newman,  Apologia,  1908,  p.  265. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION.  I  89 

into  affectation  and  vain  display.  The  truths  of  mathematics 
have  been  discovered,  but  not  invented,  by  man;  they  are  of 
use  in  explaining  the  meaning  of  those  passages  of  the  Bible 
that  deal  with  forms,  tones,  and  mystical  numbers.  At  the 
same  time  they  lead  the  mind  to  study  the  relationship  between 
the  changeable  and  the  unchangeable,  and  thus  the  soul — 
provided  it  traces  this  relationship  to  its  ultimate  end,  the 
love  of  God — will  be  conducted  to  the  spring  of  wisdom.  The 
God-fearing  youth,  talented  and  thirsting  for  knowledge,  should 
be  very  cautious  in  taking  up  the  study  of  any  secular  science. 
He  may  give  some  attention  to  those  institutions  that  are  in- 
dispensable to  social  life;  and  the  sciences  most  useful  to  him 
are  the  history  of  past  and  present-day  events,  dialectic,  and 
mathematics.  But  in  studying  even  these  sciences  he  must  be 
guided  by  the  principle,  "Ne  quid  nimis."  Works  like  Eusebius' 
Ecclesiastical  History  and  the  explanation  of  the  concrete  mat- 
ters of  Scripture  should  be  the  basis  of  the  empirical  studies. 
St.  Augustine  does  not  decide  whether  the  dialectical  portions 
of  Scripture  are  to  receive  special  treatment,  but  inclines  to 
the  negative  answer,  "because  the  art  of  the  pro  and  con  ex- 
tends, in  the  manner  of  nerves,  through  the  entire  body  of 
Scripture;"1  and  he  grants  that  dialectic  may  be  studied  in 
schools  not  under  the  control  of  the  Church.2  The  truths 
found  among  the  heathen  philosophers,  especially  among  the 
Platonists,  are  compared  to  the  vessels  of  gold  and  silver  that 
the  Israelites  took,  upon  God's  command,  from  the  heathen 
temples  of  Egypt,  to  devote  them  to  the  service  of  the  Lord. 
In  like  manner,  the  Christian  should  withdraw  from  the  worship 
of  the  demons  and  devote  to  the  service  of  God  all  that  has 
been  dug,  in  the  course  of  time,  from  the  mine  of  truth.3 

8.  With  the  gradual  growth  of  a  distinctively  Christian 
literature  and  the  corresponding  decline  of  heathen  literature, 
Christian  educational  writers,  feeling  sure  of  a  broad  and  homo- 
geneous Christian  foundation,  saw  less  danger  in  what  was 
taken  over  from  heathen  education.  And  thus  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  content  of  ancient  education  was  incorporated 
into  the  Christian  system.  The  framework  consisted  of  the 
seven  liberal  arts  as  described,  not  without  some  African  flour- 
ishes, by  Marcianus  Capella,  or  in  a  plainer  style  and  with 

1  Cow/.,  II,  4o,  56. 

2  Ibid.,  32.     Concerning  rhetoric,  cf.  IV,  2  sq. 

3  St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  employs  the  same  comparison  for  enjoining  the 
same  duty  in  his  De  Vita  Mosis  (Opp.,  Par.,  1638,  I,  p.  209). 


190  CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION    ON   ROMAN  SOIL. 

references  to  Christian  materials  by  Cassiodorus  (died  562). 
In  the  West  philology  assumed  an  encyclopedic  character  as 
may  be  seen  in  the  Origines  or  Etymologies  of  Isidore  of  Seville 
(died  636),  wherein  the  compiler  has  assembled,  by  covering 
the  ground  of  the  liberal  arts  and  by  adding  biblical  and  theo- 
logical materials,  all  that  was  thought  worth  knowing.  His 
Sententice  is  a  compilation  of  the  essentials  of  Christian  Doc- 
trine, and  by  these  works  Isidore  prepared  the  way  for  the 
encyclopedias  and  compendiums  of  the  Middle  Ages.1  Boethius 
(died  525),  the  translator  and  commentator  of  Aristotle,  exer- 
cised in  the  West  the  profoundest  influence  on  the  study  of 
philosophy.  The  selections  from  the  ancient  classics  were  largely 
made  at  random.  It  was  not  the  internal  value  of  the  work, 
or  the  importance  attached  to  it  by  the  ancients,  that  deter- 
mined the  reading  of  a  poem;  but  other,  often  entirely  mistaken, 
considerations  prevailed.  The  works  of  Vergil  were  highly  es- 
teemed—  the  reason  being, 'besides  the  traditional  attitude,  the 
interpretation  of  his  fourth  eclogue  as  a  prophecy  of  the  Messias. 
His  poems  were1  interpreted  allegorically,  and  the  Aeneid  was 
considered  a  picture  of  human  life.  St.  Augustine  states  (De 
Civ.  Dei,  I,  3)  that  the  little  ones  read  him  in  order  that,  after 
having  in  their  earliest  childhood  imbibed  his  wisdom,  they 
might  never  forget  the  greatest  and  best  of  poets.  Statius,  who 
was  believed  to  have  been  a  secret  follower  of  Christ,  was  es- 
teemed most  after  Vergil.  The  traditional  attitude  towards 
Horace  and  his  wealth  of  quotable  sentences  are  responsible 
for  his  being  read  in  the  schools.  Sallust  was  preferred  to  Livy, 
probably  because  the  introductions  in  his  Lives  abound  in  moral 
maxims;  but  the  authors  of  historical  summaries  were  esteemed 
above  both.  Seneca  ranked  high  among  the  philosophers  be- 
cause of  his  sententious  style;  the  later  tradition  represents  him 
as  a  Christian  and  a  martyr  to  the  Christian  cause.  The  Greeks 
cultivated  for  a  long  time  an  eclectic  study  of  the  classics.  Their 
anthologies  contained,  in  parallel  columns,  texts  from  Scripture 


1  The  Origines  treat  the  following  subjects  (the  figures  indicate  the  respec- 
tive book):  i.  grammar;  2.  rhetoric  and  dialectic;  3.  arithmetic,  astronomy, 
music;  4.  medicine;  5.  jurisprudence;  6.  of  books,  writing,  literature,  spiritual 
offices;  7.  of  God  and  holy  men;  8.  of  the  Church;  9.  of  languages;  10.  ety- 
mologies in  alphabetical  order;  II.  of  man;  12.  of  the  animals;  13.  and  14.  of 
the  earth  and  its  parts;  15.  of  cities,  houses,  and  rural  estates;  16.  of  metals, 
stones,  weights,  and  measures;  17.  of  agriculture,  horticulture,  and  plants; 
1 8.  of  armies  and  games;  19.  of  architecture,  navigation,  and  dress;  20.  of 
food  and  household  furniture. 


THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

and  the  Church  Fathers  and  quotations  from  the  classics;  and 
of  all  collections  that  made  in  the  eighth  century  by  St.  John 
Damascene  enjoyed  the  greatest  favor.  The  ecclesiastical  schools 
conducted  in  Constantinople  at  this  time  taught  the  liberal  arts 
and  the  philosophical  disciplines,  and  read  and  interpreted 
Homer,  Hesiod,  Demosthenes,  and  Plutarch. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Early  Christian  School  System. 

i.  As  the  process  of  assimilating  the  content  of  ancient 
education  was  slow,  so  the  schools  also  were  slow  in  adapting 
themselves  to  the  new  conditions.  The  Christians  were  obliged 
as  late  as  the  sixth  century  to  study  grammar  and  rhetoric  in 
schools  that  held  sacred  the  ancient  traditions  and  that  were, 
only  too  frequently,  hotbeds  of  paganism.  It  was  just  the 
middle  schools  that  preserved  their  pagan  character  longest, 
while  the  elementary  as  well  as  the  highest  schools  were  Chris- 
tianized much  earlier.1  It  was  not  difficult  to  correlate  the 
Christian  instruction  needed  for  the  youngest  pupils  with  the 
subject-matter  of  the  elementary  school.  The  first  schools  for 
reading,  writing,  and  the  singing  of  psalms  were  founded  in 
Syria,  where  the  need  of  having  the  Scriptures  translated  into 
the  vernacular  urged  the  Christians  to  be  active  both  in  edu- 
cation and  in  general  literature.  The  Presbyter  Protogenes  is 
mentioned  as  having  opened,  in  the  second  half  of  the  second 
century,  the  first  Christian  school  at  Edessa.  We  lack  the 
data  to  trace  the  growth  of  the  early  Christian  schools  con- 
ducted by  the  presbyters.  However,  in  the  fifth  century  these 
schools  had  spread  at  least  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  as  appears 
from  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Vaison  (Vasio),  issued  in  443, 
which  ordained  that  all  Gallic  presbyters  should  follow  the 
custom  which  was  said  to  be  of  long  standing  in  Italy:  to  take 
boys  into  their  homes,  be  spiritual  fathers  to  them,  and  teach 
them  the  reading  of  the  Psalms  and  of  Sacred  Scripture;  and, 
in  general,  to  instruct  them  in  the  knowledge  and  fear  of  the 
Lord.  The  Synods  of  Orange  and  Valence  on  the  Rhone  (529) 
decree  the  opening  of  schools  in  connection  with  the  different 

1  Cf.  E.  Magevney,  Christian  Education  in  the  First  Centuries,  New  York, 
1900;  A.  T.  Drane,  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars,  New  York,  1910. 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  ON    ROMAN   SOIL. 

parishes.  The  third  Council  of  Constantinople  (68 1)  ordained 
that  the  priests  should  conduct  schools  in  all  places  (per  villas 
et  vicos}  within  the  parish  limits.  From  the  lives  of  many 
saints  we  learn  that  the  missionaries  who  preached  the  Gospel 
taught  the  neophytes  reading  and  writing  also.  It  is  related 
that  the  pagan  pupils  of  Cassian,  the  traveling  bishop  of  Rhse- 
tia,  being  incensed  at  the  severity  of  his  discipline,  killed  their 
master  with  their  styles;  and  St.  Patrick  is  said  to  have  written 
as  many  primers  as  there  are  days  in  the  year. 

The  monasteries  also  played  an  important  role  in  laying 
the  foundation  of  the  Christian  school  system.  The  rules  of 
the  religious  orders  of  the  East  prescribed  that  the  novices 
learn  to  read;  and  they  contained  minute  regulations  for  the 
education  and  instruction  of  the  children  entrusted  to  the  care 
of  the  monks.  Such  regulations  are  found  in  the  rule  of  St. ' 
Basil  the  Great  as  well  as  in  the  older  rule  of  St.  Pachomius 
(died  348),  so  that  Egypt,  which  was  the  scene  of  St.  Pachomius' 
labors,  is  considered  the  cradle  of  the  monastic  schools.1  Orphan 
asylums  began  to  be  opened  about  the  same  time,  first  in  Con- 
stantinople and  Rome,  and  in  the  latter  city  song  schools  were 
connected  with  the  asylums. 

1.  The  system  of  higher  education  developed  out  of  the 
catechumenate.  The  term  /care^etv — meaning  originally  to  teach 
by  word  of  mouth — was  employed  in  the  early  Church  for  desig- 
nating the  instruction  and  the  training  then  required  as  a  pre- 
paration for  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism.2  The  need  for  giving 
this  instruction  to  whole  classes  of  catechumens  suggested  the 
organizing  of  regular  catechetical  courses,  which  were  conducted 
during  Lent  preparatory  to  the  solemn  administration  of  Bap- 
tism at  Easter,  and  which  were  in  charge  either  of  the  priests 
themselves  or  of  such  as  were  especially  engaged  for  this  work 
(doctores,  SiSao-KaAot) .  These  courses  developed  into  regular 
schools  wherever  the  scientific  spirit  was  strong  enough  to 
prompt  a  deeper  and  broader  study  of  the  teachings  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  catechetical  school  of  Alexandria,  which  traced 
its  origin  back  to  the  Evangelist  St.  Mark,  was  at  first  devoted 
exclusively  to  the  instruction  and  training  of  catechumens,  but 
later  took  up  the  scientific  study  of  the  Christian  religion,  for 
the  purpose  not  only  of  converting  educated  pagans  to  the 

1  Brother  Azarias,  Essays  Educational,  New  York,  1 896,  pp.  6  ff. 

2  Ad.  G.  Weiss,  Die  altchristliche  Padagogik  dargestellt  in  Katechumenat  und 
Katechese  der  ersten  seeks  Jahrhunderte,  Freiburg,  1869,  p.  40;  cf.  McCormick, 
History  of  Education,  Washington,  1915,  pp.  65  ff. 


THE    EARLY   CHRISTIAN    SCHOOL    SYSTEM.  193 

truths  of  the  Church,  but  also  of  training  efficient  catechists.1 
Christian  schools  of  the  same  type  were  located  at  Antioch, 
Edessa,  Nisibis,  Gandisapora,  and  other  Syrian  cities.  The 
African  Bishop  Junilius  relates  that  the  school  at  Nisibis  was 
celebrated  for  its  methcdical  and  well-regulated  (ordine  et 
regulariter  traditur)  course  in  the  law  of  Christ,  which  was 
given  by  public  teachers  after  the  manner  of  the  public  teachers 
of  grammar  and  rhetoric.'2  The  West  had  fallen  upon  evil  days, 
and  hence  it  was  in  vain  that  Cassiodorus  tried  to  persuade 
Pope  Agapitus  to  introduce  the  methods  of  the  eastern  schools.3 
3.  In  the  West,  the  bishops'  schools,  modeled  after  St. 
Augustine's  school  at  Hippo,  were  the  first  homes  of  higher 
learning.  Possidius  states,  in  his  life  of  St.  Augustine,  that  no 
less  than  ten  bishops,  celebrated  for  their  learning,  had  studied 
in  the  school  at  Hippo;  and  they  in  turn  were  the  founders  of 
similar  schools  in  their  own  cathedral  cities.  The  primary  pur- 
pose of  these  schools  was  to  provide  for  the  training  of  the 
diocesan  clergy.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  such  as  had  not 
yet  decided  for  the  clerical  state  were  also  admitted,  for  we 
read  of  an  inner  circle  of  students  that  gathered  about  the 
bishop,  in  contrast  to  a  class  of  pupils  who  were  not  so  privi- 
leged. St.  Peter  Chrysologus,  for  instance,  who  received  his 
education  in  the  first  decades  of  the  fifth  century  under  the 
direction  of  Cornelius,  Bishop  of  Imola,  was  trained  for  the 
priesthood  only  after  he  had  advanced  from  an  exoteric  class 
to  an  inner  circle.4  The  development  of  the  bishops'  schools 
was  contemporaneous  with  that  of  the  monastic  schools.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  was  not  more 
explicit  on  the  subject  of  education  than  the  earlier  monastic 
rules  had  been.  To  studies  in  general  the  Saint  himself  was 
rather  opposed  than  favorable;  and  Gregory  the  Great,  the 
glory  of  the  Benedictine  Order,  avows  that  "it  is  an  indignity 

1  That  the  f  chcol  at  Alexandria  never  lest  sight  of  its  original  aim,  is  clear 
from  the  two  courses  offered  there  at  the  time  of  Origen:  one  elementary  for 
beginners  and  the  other  a  theological  course  for  advanced  students.     (Eus., 
Hist,  eccl.,  VI,  15.)     It  is  noteworthy  that  the  mission  schools  of  the  ipth 
century   bear  evidence   to  the  wisdom  of  combining  heathen   and  Christian 
studies,  as  was  done  at  Alexandria.     The  Catholic  schools  in  China,  opened 
since  1840,  devote  the  first  seven  or  eight  years  to  the  national  studies  required 
for  the  state  examinations,  and  only  after  this  ground  has  been  covered  are 
the  pupils  introduced  to  the  distinctively  Christian  branches. 

2  Junilius,  De  part.  div.  leg.  in  Conring,  De  antiq.  academ.,  I,  29. 

3  Cassiodorus,  De  divin.  et  hum.  /ect.,  Pnef. 

4  Bardenhewer-Shahan,  Patrology,  New  York,  1908,  pp.  526  ff. 

13 


194  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION   ON    ROMAN  SOIL. 

that  the  words  of  the  oracle  of  heaven  should  be  restrained  by 
the  rules  of  Donat,"1  and  that  the  same  lips  can  not  be  ex- 
pected to  praise  at  once  both  Jove  and  Christ.  But  that  state- 
ment of  the  Benedictine  Rule  which  enjoins  the  monks  to  devote 
three  hours  daily  to  reading  and  to  peruse  entire  books  during 
Lent,  contained  the  germ  of  the  glorious  educational  history 
of  the  Order;  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  education  of  the 
oblati — the  children  who  had  been  dedicated  by  their  parents 
to  the  religious  life — and  the  training  of  the  monks  for  the  duties 
of  the  priesthood  assumed  the  form  of  systematic  schooling. 
The  full  realization,  however,  of  their  educational  mission  came 
to  the  Benedictines  only  after  they  found  themselves  far  re- 
moved from  the  centres  of  civilization  and  face  to  face  with 
semi-barbarous"  races,  whom  they  could  gain  permanently  for 
Christ  by  no  other  means  than  by  becoming  their  teachers  and 
masters  in  the  mechanical  as  well  as  the  fine  arts,  in  agriculture, 
in  science  and  in  cultural  activity  of  all  kinds.  The  Benedictine 
school  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  only  a  part  of  the  complex  system 
of  institutions  that  assisted  in  the  work  of  civilization,  and 
which  were  the  outgrowth  of  missionary  activity.  The  early 
form  of  the  monastic  school  embraced  the  whole  content  of 
education:  the  elements,  the  liberal  arts,  the  reading  of  the 
classics,  theology,  and  gave  some  attention,  besides,  to  the 
professional  sciences,  as,  medicine  and  surveying.  To  meet  the 
twofold  purpose  of  educating  the  young  members  of  the  Order 
and  of  providing  the  secular  training  for  the  man  of  the  world, 
the  schola  claustri  or  interior  for  the  young  monks  was  separated 
from  the  schola  canonica  or  exterior.  The  monks  shirked  no 
labor;  they  were  tireless  in  improving  their  schools;  and  hence 
their  institutions  became  the  models  for  all  the  schools  of  the 
Middle  Ages.2 

4.  Between  the  early  Christian  schools  and  the  schools  of 
classical  antiquity  there  are  three  striking  differences.  First, 
the  Christian  schools  were,  by  virtue  of  their  pronounced  reli- 
gious and  moral  aim,  institutions  not  only  for  cultural,  but  also 
educational,  purposes,  and  of  this  fact  their  practice  of  com- 

1  Gregory  expressed  himself  thus:  " Non  metacismi  collisionem  fugio,  non 
barbarismi  confusionetn  devito,  situs  motusque  prapositionum,  casusque  servare 
contemno:  quia  indignum  vehementer  existimo,  ut  verba  caelestis  oraculi  restringam 
fub  regulis  Donati"  (Praf.  Jcbi.,  I,  p.  6).     We  can  not  say  that  these  words 
imply  a  declaration  of  war  on  grammar;  they  only  state  that  we  do  not  de- 
mand grammatical  scrupulosity  of  the  theologian. 

2  Cf.  J.  H.  Newman,  Historical  Sketches,  1912,  Vol.  II,  pp.  450  ff. 


THE    EARLY   CHRISTIAN    SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

munity  life,  which  was  unknown  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  schools, 
bears  external  evidence.  Secondly,  the  Christian  schools  were 
obviously  bent  on  making  religion  the  core-subject  about  which 
all  the  various  branches  were  grouped,  so  that  one  institution 
embraced  the  whole  field  of  general  education;  whereas  the 
ancient  schools  taught  generally  only  one  subject,  wherefore 
the  young  Greeks  and  Romans  could  obtain  a  general  education 
only  by  passing  through  the  different  schools  of  the  grammarian, 
rhetorician,  music  teacher,  etc.  Thirdly,  the  Christian  schools 
were  considered,  because  they  were  controlled  by  the  Church, 
public  institutions,  while  the  school  system  of  the  ancients 
represented,  at  least  at  the  time  when  the  schools  were  at  their 
best,  only  the  loose  union  of  private  establishments.  Of  ancient 
institutions,  the  temple  schools  of  Egypt,  with  their  affiliated 
colleges  and  priest-teachers,  might  perhaps  correspond,  in  some 
degree,  to  the  school  system  of  the  early  Church.  But  the  few 
points  of  similarity  will  appear  insignificant,  when  we  consider 
that  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  end  of  the  Christian  schools  differ 
essentially  from  all  that  inspired  the  schools  of  ancient  Egypt. 
The  latter  were  confined  to  an  exclusively  national  subject- 
matter  of  teaching.  The  different  castes  were  allowed  only  a 
graduated  amount  of  instruction,  and  the  educational  content, 
thus  hedged  in  on  all  sides,  could  not  enjoy  a  proper  develop- 
ment, but  grew  more  rigid  with  its  increasing  age.  In  contrast 
with  this,  we  knew  the  Christian  school  system  to  be  the  mem- 
ber of  an  organism  that  transcends  beyond  the  limits  of  nation- 
ality, and  which,  instead  of  stressing  any  class  distinctions, 
obliterates  these  differences  by  dealing  with  the  individual  and 
by  giving  him,  through  teaching  the  loyalty  due  to  the  Lord  of 
the  earth,  the  liberty  of  a  child  of  God.  The  Christian  school 
system  will  never  grow  rigid,  because  it  is  controlled  by  the 
teaching  office  of  the  Church.  An  eternal  youth  is  its  pre- 
rogative, for  it  is  continuously  renewed  by  drawing  from  the 
waters  of  the  eternally  new  teachings  of  the  Christian  Church. 
The  Christian  nations  are  teaching  nations;  they  have  attained 
this  distinction  by  virtue  of  the  teaching  office  of  the  Christian 
Church;  and  in  organizing  the  system  of  education  they  have 
far  outstripped  the  ancients,  because  they  were  assisted  by  the 
plastic  forces  at  work  in  the  Church. 


VI. 
MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  School  System  of  the  Middle  Ages.1 

i.  The  Middle  Ages  is  the  term  (first  used  in  the  lyt'h  cen- 
tury) for  designating  the  thousand  years  intervening  between 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  revival  of  letters  in  the 
i6th  century.  But  the  designation  is  obviously  inappropriate,  be- 
cause it  is  founded  on  what  is  of  most  external  significance. 
These  thousand  years  are,  in  reality,  not  a  middle  period  at  all; 
they  are  the  dawn  of  a  new  era,  for  they  cover  the  first  stages 
in  the  cultural  development  of  Christian  Europe,  and  represent 
the  youth  of  the  modern  nations.  As  improper  as  is  the  name 
given  to  these  thousand  years,  so  little  ground  is  there  for  the 
various  notions  popularly  associated  with  the  "Dark  Ages." 
Modern  historical  research  has  shown  convincingly  that  the 
world  was  not  buried  for  a  thousand  years  in  a  sort  of  winter- 
sleep,  but  that  there  was,  in  fact,  during  the  Middle  Ages  a 
most  vigorous  and  general  activity,  and  that  much  of  our  mod- 
ern progress  would  have  been  impossible  had  not  the  Middle 
Ages  first  broken  the  ground.  Looking  broadly  at  some  of  the 
results  accomplished  by  the  Middle  Ages,  we  must  note  the 
civilization  of  the  barbarian  races  of  the  North  and  the  amal- 
gamation of  divers  races  with  individual  peoples  of  settled  and 
national  character.  Furthermore,  we  see  Europe  as  a  whole 
superseding  the  geographical  unit  constituted  formerly  by  the 
countries  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea.'  Ancient  history 
had  ever  known  only  one  world-empire;  but  the  wars  of  the 
Middle  Ages  brought  about  the  establishment  of  several  inde- 
pendent nations  united  by  the  ties  of  a  common  culture.  But 
the  medieval  nations  were  disadvantaged  in  this,  that  they 
drew  much  less  than  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  upon 
what  was  their  own,  being  obliged  to  turn  to  foreign  peoples 

1  E.  Magevney,  Christian  Education  in  the  Dark  Ages,  New  York,  1900; 
P.  J.  McCormick,  History  of  Education ,  Washington,  1915,  pp.  86-aio;  cf.  also 
Catholic  Encyclopedia,  New  York,  1907-14. 

196 


THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

for  essential  elements  of  their  historical  life.  Still,  this  process 
of  assimilation,  once  it  was  well  under  way,  inaugurated  the 
growth  of  a  culture  that  was  immeasurably  richer  than  that 
of  the  ancients.  "European  civilization  from  the  Middle  Ages' 
downwards  is,"  as  Gladstone  says,1  "the  compound  of  two 
great  factors,  the  Christian  religion  for  the  spirit  of  man,  and 
the  Greek,  and  in  a  secondary  degree,  the  Roman,  discipline 
for  his  mind  and  intellect;"  and  these  foreign  elements  had  to 
enter  deep  into  the  national  life,  before  the  native  forces  of  the 
latter  could  be  set  free  for  the  work  of  co-operation. 

Thus  the  educational  forces  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  pri- 
marily occupied  with  receiving,  assimilating,  and  imitating  the 
matter  that  was  on  hand;  and  the  medieval  school  system 
is  consequently  not  free  from  the  cumbersomeness  (Schwerfal- 
ligkeif)  that  characterizes  all  such  beginnings.  Ancient  Greece 
and  Rome  had  never  in  their  educational  efforts  met  with  such 
difficulties  as  confronted  the  Middle  Agjes  on  all  sides.  The 
Middle  Ages  had  to  assimilate,  not  only  the  entirely  new  ele- 
ments of  the  Christian  religion,  but  also  the  elements  of  classi- 
cal education,  the  precipitate  of  Roman  education.  To  convert 
these  latter  elements,  which  represented  an  apparently  dead 
matter,  into  a  life-giving  factor,  was  not  a  light  task;  and  the 
difficulty  was  the  greater  as  dry  and  uninviting  compendiums 
were  the  sole  guides  in  this  work.  The  medium  of  expression 
was,  moreover,  the  Latin  language,  not  only  a  foreign  tongue, 
but  itself  dying  and  containing,  at  its  best,  a  subject-matter 
that  was  at  variance  with  the  intellectual  content  of  the  new 
nations.  It  is  true  that  the  Church  proved  the  patron  of  the 
new  education,  lending  it  the  influence  of  her  own  organiza- 
tion; but  at  the  same  time  she  subjected  it  to  her  authority 
and  determined  its  scope  accordingly.  In  some  points  the  hard 
schooling  of  those  centuries  may  often  enough  appear  meagre 
and  unproductive 'in  its  details;  but  considered  as  a  whole,  it 
was  the  best  preparation  for  free  movement  and  independent 
efforts.  Yet  it  was  more  than  a  mere  preparation  for  better 
things:  medieval  education  advanced  far  beyond  the  stage  of 
tutelage.  It  was  far  from  being  merely  receptive;  for  it  did  not 
only  take  over  the  various  forms  of  schools  of  the  early  Church: 
the  monastic,  episcopal,  and  parochial  schools  (whose  scope  of 
usefulness  it  enlarged),  but  founded  institutions  wholly  un- 
known in  any  previous  age:  the  system  of  chivalric  education, 


Cyclopedia  of  Education,  s.  v.  Gladstone. 


198  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

the  guild  schools,  and  the  teachers'  corporations  of  the  uni- 
versities. 

2.  Among  the  monastic  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  Be- 
nedictine schools  hold  the  first  place.1  The  black  monks  had 
early  recognized  the  principle  that  the  welfare,  glory,  and  sta- 
bility of  their  Order  depend  on  its  schools;2  and  the  events  fol- 
lowing upon  the  Barbarian  Invasion  bore  out  the  truth  of  this 
view.  The  educational  leaders  of  the  period  of  the  Carolingians 
and  Ottos  were  either  Benedictines  or  their  pupils.  The  Ven- 
erable Bade3  (died  735),  the  scholasticus  of  Jarrow  and  the 
Father  of  English  History,  is  the  first  of  the  long  line  of  dis- 
tinguished Benedictine  scholars.  Tradition  is  at  fault  in  mak- 
ing Alcuin  or  Albinus  (born  735,  died  80^.)  the  pupil  of  Bede, 
but  in  his  spirit  and  methods  of  teaching  he  is  a  disciple  of  the 
master  of  Jarrow.  Alcuin  was  a  friend  and  councilor  of  Charle- 
magne and  the  first  of  the  masters  from  whom  rays  of  culture 
(as  it  were)  issued  in  all  directions;  his  monastic  school  at  Tours 
is  the  first  of  the  model  schools  and  institutions  for  the  train- 
ing of  teachers  that  were  in  those  centuries  the  chief  seats  of 
learning  in  Europe.  Paschasius  Radbertus,  his  fellow-laborer, 
founded  the  monastic  school  at  Corbie,  and  this  in  turn  became 
the  parent  of  the  school  at  Corvey,  in  Saxony.  Of  his  other 
fellow-laborers,  Leidrad  was  the  glory  of  the  cathedral  school 
at  Lyons,  and  Arnulph,  of  the  Salzburg  school;  and  of  his  pupils, 
Rhabanus  modeled  the  abbey  school  at  Fulda  after  that  of 
Tours.  The  same  was  done  by  Ludger  at  the  cathedral  school 
at  Munster  and  by  Haimin  at  the  school  at  Arras — the  last- 
named  proving  the  pattern  for  the  schools  at  St.  Amand  and 
Auxerre.  The  educational  writings  of  Alcuin  spread  his  influence 
far  beyond  the  territory  of  the  Franks.4  The  school  at  Fulda, 
organized  by  Rhabanus  Maurus  (born  775,  died  856)  served  as 
the  model  for  the  reorganization  of  the  schools  of  Saint  Gall 
(Wernbert  and  Hartmut)  and  Reichenau  (Walafried  Strabo), 
and  for  the  founding  of  schools  at  Weissenburg  (Otfried),  Hers- 
feld  (Strabus),  Hirschau  (Hidulph  and  Ruthard),  and  Ferriere 
(Servatus  Lupus).  The  influence  of  Rhabanus,  the  praeceptor 


1  Cf.  Newman,  Historical  Sketches,  New  York,  1912,  Vol.  II,  pp.  450  ff. 

2  Ziegelbauer,  Hist.  Ord.  S.  5.,  I,  p.  652:  "Veterum  ccenobitarum  frequens 
erat  istud  keleusma:  Ex  scholis  omnis  nostra  sa/us,  omnis  felicitas,  divitice  omnes 
ac  ordinis  splendor  constansque  stabilitas. " 

3  Cf.  Rawnsley,   The  Venerable  Bede,  Sunderland,   1903;  Lingard,  Anglo- 
Saxon  Church,  London,  1 840. 

4  West,  Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  Christian  Schools ,  New  York,  1892. 


THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  199 

Germaniae^  extended,  like  that  of  Alcuin,  through  his  educa- 
tional and  encyclopedic  works,  far  beyond  his  school  and  coun- 
try. A  position  similar  to  his  was  held  in  the  period  of  the  Ottos 
and  the  first  kings  of  the  Capetian  dynasty  by  Gerbert,  known 
in  history  as  Pope  Sylvester  II.  (died  1033),  who,  though  not 
a  Benedictine,  had  been  educated  in  the  Benedictine  monastery 
at  Aurillac.  This  school  at  Aurillac  had  begun  to  flourish  under 
Odo  of  Clugny,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Remigius  of  Auxerre,  the 
latter  being,  through  his  teacher  Heiricus,  connected  with  the 
circle  .of  Alcuin.  Gerbert  was  "so  brilliant  a  teacher  that  every 
school  became  under  his  management  a  training  school  for 
teachers;"  he  taught  in  Rheims  and  Paris,  and  was  instrumental 
in  raising  the  schools  of  St.  Germain  aux  Pres  (Ingo),  of  Aux- 
erre (John  of  Auxerre),  of  Leury  (Abbo),  Chartres  (Fulbert), 
Mittelach  (Nithard  and  Remigius),  etc.,  to  a  high  degree  of 
efficiency.  He  introduced  the  learning  of  the  Arabians  into 
the  West;  and  the  interest  taken  in  his  schools  in  dialectic  gave 
rise  to  Scholasticism.1  The  monastic  school  connected  with  the 
Benedictine  Abbey  of  Bee,  in  Normandy,  where  Lanfranc  was 
prior  and  his  pupil  Anselm  of  Canterbury  (born  1035,  died 
1 109)  abbot,  was  the  most  famous  school  of  dialectic  in  Chris- 
tendom, and  one  of  the  first  schools  to  take  up  the  study  of 
Scholasticism.  The  Archabbey  of  Monte  Cassino  flourished  anew 
during  this  period,  and  teachers  connected  with  its  school  in- 
vented the  so-called  ars  dictandi^  a  branch  of  rhetoric.  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  the  greatest  and  most  influential  philosopher 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  studied  at  Monte  Cassino. 

3.  Beginning  with  the  tenth  century,  many  new  and  inde- 
pendent orders  branched  off  from  the  Benedictines,  but  con- 
tinued to  observe — though  in  a  more  or  less  modified  form— 
the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict.  Though  these  new  orders  did  not 
directly  influence  the  schools,  their  indirect  influence  was  large, 
for  they  raised  the  tone  of  the  religious  life  and  thereby  im- 
proved general  Christian  morals.  The  Cluniac  rule  declared 
the  study  of  the  heathen  classics  to  be  dangerous,  and  the  Cis- 
tercians as  well  as  the  Premonstratensians  did  not  attach  the 
same  importance  to  learning  as  the  mother-order.  But  the 
monasteries  of  these  orders  founded  in  Brandenburg,  Misnia, 
Silesia,  and  Poland  exercised,  in  these  countries,  the  same  whole- 
some influence  on  studies  as  the  Benedictine  schools  had  done 
in  the  West.  The  mere  number  of  the  monasteries — in  1500 


McCormick,  1.  c.,  pp.  m  ff.;  cf.  Opera,  Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  CXXXIX. 


2OO  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

there  were  no  less  than  37,000  monasteries  belonging  to  the  Ben- 
edictines and  to  branches  of  their  Order  —  is  sufficient  evidence 
of  the  important  public  function  of  the  religious  orders;  and 
even  if  we  granted  that  only  one  twentieth  of  these  37,000 
monasteries  had  regular  schools,  they  would  still  constitute  no 
small  part  of  the  school  system  of  the  time. 

The  two  great  orders  of  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans, 
which  were  founded  in  the  age  of  the  Crusades  and  which  en- 
joyed a  phenomenal  growth,  influenced  the  schools  in  a  different 
way  than  the  older  orders  had  done.  They  gave  most  of  their 
attention  to  preaching  and  to  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
masses,  and  therefore  considered  the  pursuit  of  higher  learning 
as  foreign  to  their  primary  aim.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  deposed 
the  guardian  of  the  monastery  at  Bologna  for  having  opened  a 
house  of  studies,  and  justified  this  step  with  the  words,  "The 
life  of  the  brothers  is  to  be  their  learning,  and  piety  is  to  be 
their  eloquence;"  but  the  same  Francis  gathered  up  any  scraps 
of  writing  he  found  in  the  street  and  put  them  aside  in  rev- 
erence, "because  the  writing  contained  the  letters  which  com- 
bine to  form  the  most  holy  Name  of  God."  With  the  further 
development  of  the  two  orders  it  became  evident  that  no  teach- 
ing could  prove  successful  unless  the  friars  cultivated  habits  of 
study  and  research.  But  their  world-wide  educational  activity, 
which  embraced  university  teaching  as  well  as  elementary  in- 
struction, dates  from  the  .year  1259  when  both  the  Franciscans 
and  the  Dominicans  were  granted  the  right  to  a  professorship 
at  the  University  of  Paris;  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  and  St.  Bona- 
vehture  were  the  first  to  fill  these  chairs.  The  Mendicants 
followed  the  example  of  the  Benedictines  in  opening  schools  in 
connection  with  their  friaries;  but  they  taught,  besides,  in  city 
schools,  and  went  about  in  the  rural  districts  preaching  and 
catechizing.  They  are  known  also  as  the  authors  of  textbooks 
and  popular  encyclopedias.  The  Franciscan  Alexander  of  Ville- 
dieu  is  the  author  of  the  most  popular  Latin  grammar  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  Doctrinale,  which  was  first  published  about 
1 200,  and  which  was  reprinted  more  than  a  hundred  times 

1  "Ones  when  it  was  pointed  out  to  him,  perhaps  not  without  sarcastic 
intention,  that  the  scrap  of  writing  he  had  rescued  was  from  some  heathen 
author,  he  replied  that  it  mattered  not,  since  the  words,  whether  of  heathens 
or  of  other  men,  all  came  from  the  wisdom  of  God."  I  Celano,  82;  Cuthbert, 
Life  of  St.  Francis,  London,  1912,  p.  294. 


THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        2OI 

before  I5OO.1  The  Dominican  Vincent  of  Beauvais  is  the  author 
of  a  large  encyclopedia  (about  1300)  in  which  he  summarized 
the  learning  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  (see  infra,  Ch.  xix). 

Other  orders  that  had  an  organization  similar  to  that  of  the 
purely  religious  communities,  but  which  combined  spiritual  and 
secular  elements,  were  also  active  along  educational  lines.  There 
are  several  instances  on  record  where  the  Knights  of  St.  John 
(founded  1048)  established  and  conducted  schools;  and  the  same 
is  true  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  (founded  at  Acre  in  1190), 
whose  grand-master  Winrich  of  Kniprode  (died  1382)  was  a 
patron  of  the  schools  in  Prussia,  where  the  first'  schools  had 
been  opened  about  1228  by  Pope  Honorius  III.  Winrich  of 
Kniprode  is  credited  with  the  statement:  "Our  Order  will  ever 
be  well  supplied  with  wealth  and  other  earthly  goods,  but  not 
always  with  prudent  and  faithful  members,  so  that  we  must 
found  in  Prussia  not  only  a  few,  but  many,  schools."  The 
Order  of  Calatrava,  founded  in  the  I3th  century,  cared  not 
only  for  the  poor  and  orphans,  but  also  opened  schools  at  some 
places.  The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  founded  by  Geert 
Grote  (Gerhardus  Magnus)  of  Deventer,  opened  their  first  house 
in  1384  at  Deventer;  a  hundred  years  later  their  schools  had 
spread  over  the  whole  territory  between  the  Scheldt  and  the 
Vistula;  the  motherhouse  at  Deventer  continued  the  centre  of 
influence,  and  by  being  actively  engaged  in  both  elementary 
and  higher  schools,  the  Brethren  popularized  the  study  of  jSacred 
Scripture  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  Humanists'  reform  of 
studies. 

4.  The  bishops'  schools  of  the  primitive  Church  developed 
in  the  Middle  Ages  into  cathedral  schools.  St.  Chrodegang  of 
Metz  (died  766)  based  his  rule  of  the  common  life,  which  he 
introduced  among  the  cathedral  clergy,  upon  the  Benedictine 
Rule,  and  charged  the  scholasticus  (scho/aster,  didascalus^  magi- 
scola,  cancellarius]  with  the  education  of  the  youths  that  were 
committed  to  the  care  of  the  priests.2  In  the  period  of  the 

1  The  Humanists  attacked  the  Doctrinale  as  being  the  authority  for  bar- 
barous Latin;  but  in  our  tims  the  book  has  received  kindlier  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  Haase,  Eckstein,  and  others.     Many  syntactical  terms  of  the  Doc- 
trinale  are  in  use  in  our  present-day  grammars.     Cf.  Eckstein's    article   Latei- 
nische  Sprache  in  Schmid's  Enzyklopadie,  IX,  p.  512;  cf.  infra,  ch.  XIX,  7. 

2  St.  Chrodegang  is  not,  as  is  frequently  stated,  the  founder  of  the  cathe- 
dral schools,  for  in  the  oldest  version  of  his  rule  (Migne,  Pat.  Lat.,  t.  89,  p.  1057) 
we  find  mention  merely  of  the  supervision   of  the  pueri  parvi  et  adulescentes. 
It  is  only  the  later  versions  that  contain  specific  details  concerning  the  edu- 
cation of  the  young. 


2O2  MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION. 

greatest  efficiency  of  the  cathedral  schools,  the  bishops  them- 
selves would  often  teach,  though  the  scholasticus  was  the  ordi- 
nary teacher.  Later,  learned  monks,  especially  Benedictines,  or 
laymen,  were  engaged  as  teachers.  These  schools  were  at- 
tended, not  only  by  the  candidates  for  the  priesthood,  but 
also  by  the  sons  of  nobles  and  even  of  princes.  The  cathedral 
schools  had,  like  the  monastic  schools  (Ch.  xvii,3),  two  divisions: 
the  inner  school,  a  boarding  school,  for  clerical  students,  and 
the  outer  school  for  the  laity.  Some  cathedral  schools,  for 
example,  the  Lateran  school  at  Rome,  the  schools  at  Lyons, 
Rheims,  Li6ge,  Paderborn,  and  Goslar,  were  as  celebrated  as 
the  monastic  schools,  but  were,  for  all  that,  patterned  after  the 
best  of  the  latter.  But  when  the  canons  discontinued  the 
common  life  in  the  nth  century  and  committed  the  schools  to 
hired  and  salaried  teachers,  the  cathedral  schools  were  doomed, 
for  they  could  not  compete  with  the  universities.  The  great 
Pope  Innocent  III.,  who  was  bent  on  conserving  and  improving 
all  the  elements  of  ecclesiastical  power  as  well  as  of  early  Chris- 
tian education,  stayed  the  downfall  of  the  cathedral  schools:  he 
is  responsible  for  the  decree  passed  by  the  Lateran  Council,  in 
1215,  ordaining  that  teachers  of  grammar  and  professors  of 
theology  be  employed  in  the  schools  to  be  opened  in  connection 
with  all  cathedrals;  and  when  instituting  a  trial  against  any 
bishop,  he  always  made  it  a  point  to  inquire  whether  the  prelate 
had  provided  for  the  Christian  education  of  the  young. 

The  bishops  were  expected  not  only  to  maintain  the  cathe- 
dral schools,  but  to  supervise  all  the  schools  of  the  diocese, 
especially  those  connected  with  the  parishes.  It  is  a  fact  sub- 
stantiated as  well  by  the  decrees  of  councils  and  synods  as  by 
direct  testimonies,  that  the  work  of  the  medieval  parish  church 
always  included  a  certain  amount  of  regular  school  work.  The 
pastor  or  his  assistants  (clerics,  sextons,  or  other  persons  in  his 
employ)  did  the  teaching.  That  the  sexton's  school  was  com- 
mon in  rural  districts  in  the  latter  part  of  the  i2th  century, 
would  appear  from  the  law  passed  in  1183  by  the  diocesan 
synod  of  Saint-Omer:  "As  the  schools  are  intended  to  train  all 
such  as  will  in  the  future  have  the  management  of  ecclesiastical 
and  secular  matters  in  Church  and  State,  we  ordain  that  the 
parish  schools,  if  fallen  into  decay,  be  rebuilt  in  all  cities  and 
villages  of  the  diocese,  or,  if  they  be  still  in  use,  be  given  more 
attention  than  heretofore.  To  this  end,  the  pastors, ,  magis- 
trates, and  prominent  members  of  the  community  should  pro- 
vide for  the  support  of  the  teachers,  for  which  office  the  sextons 


THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         2O3 

are  generally  employed  in  the  rural  districts.  The  school  is  to 
be  opened  in  a  building  near  the  parish  church,  so  that  the 
teacher  may  the  more  easily  be  controlled  by  the  pastor  and 
other  authorities,  and  the  pupils,  too,  be  introduced  more  easily 
to  the  practices  of  our  holy  Religion."1  Even  if  these  parish 
schools  represent  only  elementary  schools,  we  must  not  overlook 
the  fact  that  the  Middle  Ages  did  not  regard,  as  we  do,  the 
elements  of  reading,  writing,  religion,  etc.,  as  belonging  to  a 
special  kind  of  school;  no  school  was  thought  worthy  of  the 
name  unless  Latin  was  taught  in  it,  and  the  study  of  Latin 
was  taken  up  as  soon  as  the  pupils  had  gotten  beyond  the  rudi- 
ments of  religion.  The  instruction  in  the  elements  was  con- 
sidered to  be  supplementary  to  the  cure  of  souls,  and  even  the 
higher  studies  were  never  considered  to  be  independent  of  the 
teaching  office  of  the  Church. 

5.  The  laity  was  intimately  connected  with  the  ecclesiastical 
schools  of  the  Middle  Ages:  young  laymen  frequented  these 
schools,  and  laymen  were  permitted  to  teach  in  them;  and 
these  conditions  account  for  the  fact  that  no  lay  schools  de- 
veloped during  this  period  in  contrast  to  the  schools  of  the 
clergy.  The  lay  schools  of  the  early  Middle  Ages  kept  up 
Roman  traditions.  Especially  in  Italy  and  the  South  of  France, 
learned  laymen  taught  the  seven  liberal  arts,  but  the  Church 
tolerated  and  controlled  their  work  without  positively  encour- 
aging the  founding  of  lay  schools.  Roman  law  was  taught  in 
Italy  by  secular  teachers  till  the  universities  made  it  one  of 
their  faculty  subjects,  and  it  would  seem  as  though  medicine 
also — though  some  monks  had  practiced  medicine — had  been 
taught  by  secular  teachers  till  it  was  recognized  as  belonging 
exclusively  to  the  universities.2  The  palace  schools  (schola  pa- 
latii  or  palatince)^  which  were  first  opened  at  the  Franconian 
court,  resemble  in  many  points  the  schools  of  the  Roman  em- 
perors. The  Merovingians  had  opened  a  palace  scho'ol,  in  imi- 
tation, most  probably,  of  the  schola  Gallica  palatii  at  Treves; 
but  the  institution  flourished  most  under  Charlemagne,  when 
Alcuin  and  Peter  of  Pisa  were  in  charge  of  the  palace  school. 
Charles  the  Bald  transferred  it  to  Paris,  where  its  most  cele- 
brated teachers  were  the  Greek  Mannon  (who  brought  some 

1  A.  Stockl,  Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Pddagogik,  Mayence,  1876,  p.  118. 

2  In  Rome  there  was  a  school  of  law  in  the  loth  century,  and  the  Roman 
judge  received,  amid  much  ceremony,  the  Justinian  Code  "to  pass  sentence 
on  Rome,  Trastevere,  and  the  whole  world  according  to  its  behests. "    Grego- 
rovius,  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom  im  Mittelalter,  III,  161  and  525  ff. 


2O4  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

of  the  writings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
West),  John  Scotus  (Eriugena),  and  Remigius  of  Auxerre.  This 
palace  school  was  finally  merged  in  the  cathedral  school  of 
Notre  Dame.  In  the  loth  century  Bruno,  subsequently  Arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  the  brother  of  Emperor  Otto  I.,  founded 
the  palace  school  of  the  Ottos.1  The  palace  school  did  not 
differ  essentially  from  the  ecclesiastical  institutions.  It  prepared 
its  pupils  for  secular  and  clerical  professions,  and  its  teachers 
were  taken  almost  exclusively  from  the  ranks  of  the  clergy; 
but  being  founded  and  controlled  by  the  secular  authorities, 
it  stands  in  a  class  apart  and  is,  in  fact,  the  forerunner  of  the 
state  universities  founded  under  the  Hohenstaufen. 

A  peculiar  kind  of  education,  lacking  the  hard  and  fast 
forms  of  regular  schooling  as  well  as  the  materials  of  the  higher 
learning,  developed  in  connection  with  medieval  knighthood. 
The  training  to  knighthood  reveals  the  influence  of  national 
elements,  and  the  latter  can  be  traced  back  to  the  pre-Christian 
Germanic  age.  The  description  in  the  Edda  of  the  training  of 
the  young  nobleman  contains  many  elements  later  incorporated 
in  chivalric  education:  "Modir  then  brought  forth  a  boy;  in 
silk  they  wrapped  him,  with  water  sprinkled  him,  and  named 
him  Jarl.  Light  was  his  hair,  bright  his  cheeks,  his  eyes  pierc- 
ing as  a  young  serpent's.  There  at  home  Jarl  grew  up,  learned 
the  shield  to  shake,  to  fix  the  string,  the  bow  to  bend,  arrows 
to  shaft,  javelins  to  hurl,  spears  to  brandish,  horses  to  ride, 
dogs  to  let  slip,  swords  to  draw,  swimming  to  practice.  Thither 
from  the  forest  came  Rig  walking;  runes  he  taught  him,  his  own 
name  gave  him,  and  his  own  son  declared  him,  whom  he  bade 
possess  his  alodial  fields,  his  ancient  dwellings. "  Turning  to 
chivalric  education,  we  find  the  warlike  practices  of  the  olden 
days  exchanged  for  the  arts  and  accomplishments  of  the  tour- 
nament. Instead  of  learning  the  runes,  the  boy  must  now 
learn  the  harp,  must  study  languages,  and  read  tales  telling  of 
the  heroic  deeds  of  the  past.  The  virtue  of  the  knight  is  des- 
ignated vriimecheit,  i.  e.,  ability;  and  cottrtoisie  is  mentioned 
as  his  special  accomplishment.  The  training  of  the  young 
knight  was  regulated,  like  that  of  the  young  cleric,  in  its  min- 
utest details,  and  even  the  grading  of  the  seven  liberal  arts 
was  applied  to  the  course  of  chivalric  education.  The  court 
of  some  distinguished  nobleman  was  the  school  for  the  noble 

1  Brother  Azarias,  The  Palatine  School,  in  Essays  Educational,  pp.  39  ff. 

2  The  Elder  Eddas,  transl.  by  Benj.  Thorpe,  New  York,  1906,  pp.  81-82. 


THE   SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE    MIDDLE  AGES.  2O5 

youth.  Though  the  father  controlled  the  education  as  a  whole, 
he  committed  the  carrying  out  of  his  plans  to  strangers:  personal 
service  was  looked  upon  as  inseparable  from  learning,  and  a 
strange  house  was  undoubtedly  better  suited  to  this  purpose 
than  the  home.  The  son  of  a  knight  was  known  as  a  page  till 
he  attained  the  age  of  fourteen,  when  he  received  at  the  altar 
the  sword  blessed  by  a  priest,  being  thereafter  known  as  a  squire. 
He  had  to  serve  as  stjuire  for  seven  years,  and  at  twenty-one 
he  was  dubbed  knight,  for  which  great  honor — it  marked  his 
freedom  from  service — he  had  to  qualify  by  deeds  of  chivalrous 
courage.  The  night  of  watching  in  the  church,  the  confession, 
the  Holy  .  Communion,  the  Missa  de  Spiritu  Sancto,  the  ser- 
mon on  the  knightly  life,  preceded  the  most  solemn  ceremony 
of  his  life.  The  principal  part  of  a  boy's  education  was  carried 
on  out  of  doors.  All  kinds  of  exercises  and  games  were  prac- 
ticed, such  as  wrestling,  boxing,  running,  riding,  tilting  at  the 
ring  and  quintain;  and  such  amusements  as  bull  and  bear- 
baiting.  The  squires  who  had  charge  of  the  pages  or  henchmen 
were  required  to  "learne  them  to  ryde  clenely  and  surely,  to 
draw  them  also  to  justes,  to  learne  them  wear  their  harness, 
to  have  all  curtesy  in  wordes,  dedes  and  degrees.  ...  to  learn 
them  sondry  languages  and  other  lernings  vertuous,  to  harping, 
to  pipe,  sing,  dance  .  .  .  with  corrections  in  their  chambers." 
The  pages  and  squires  were  frequently  dispensed  from  learning 
to  write,  but  great  importance  was  attached  to  learning  foreign 
languages,  especially  French;  Latin  was  frequently  learned,  but 
Greek  only  in  rare  instances.  The  boys  were  imbued  with  the 
knightly  spirit  of  the  age  by  being  steeped  in  the  poems  and 
tales  that  told  of  the  chivalrous  deeds  of  all  times;  for  it  was 
thought  that  these  aventiuren  were  the  embodiment  of  the 
ideals  of  knighthood,  showing  concretely  what  should  be  the 
goal  of  knightly  ambition.  Classical  antiquity  furnished  its 
quota  of  tales,  for  the  stories  of  the  Trojan  War,  of  Aeneas' 
wanderings,  and  of  the  wars  of  Alexander  had  been  treated  by 
national  poets  and  adapted  to  the  national  way  of  thinking. 
Though  chivalric  education  was  adapted  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  nobility,  a  particular  class,  and  though  it  was,  therefore, 
vocational  in  aim,  yet  it  was  based  on  the  broadest  of  human 
elements,  for  it  included  Christian,  German,  Latin,  and  roman- 

1  Furnivall,  Forewords,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  1867,  quoted  in  Cornish,  Chivalry,  Lon- 
don, 1908,  p.  64. 


2O6  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

tic  elements,  and  it  was  thus  well  calculated  to  develop  the 
whole  personality  of  the  young  nobleman.1 

6.  Despite  the  contrast  between  the  life  at  court  and  that 
of  the  citizenry,  the  guild  schools  have  much  in  common  with 
chivalric  education.  The  guild  schools  recognized  as  basic  prin- 
ciples that  serving  and  learning  are  inseparable,  that  the  edu- 
cation of  the  young  must  be  graded,  and  that  the  training  for 
a  mechanical  vocation  is,  like  the  training  for  knighthood, 
concerned  with  the  transmitting  of  specific  art,s,  customs,  con- 
cepts. However,  the  last-named  elements  are  so  closely  inter- 
related with  the  universal  consciousness  and  the  ideas  of  the 
age  that  the  training  for  the  trades,  though  vocational  in 
aim,  may  be  considered  a  branch  of  general  education.  Be- 
sides the  proximate  aim  of  safeguarding  the  interests  of  their 
members,  the  guilds  followed  the  higher  aim  of  conserving  and 
transmitting  to  posterity  mechanical  skill  and  the  approved 
customs  of  the  various  trades.  This  higher  aim  gave  rise  to 
the  scholce  of  the  guilds  and  brought  it  about  that  the  full-fledged 
members  were  called  magistri,  masters.  Only  legitimate  boys, 
who  were  "born  in  honorable  wedlock,  of  father  and  mother 
according  to  the  laws  and  regulations  of  Holy  Church,"2  could 
learn  a  trade;  for  the  members  of  the  guild  must  be  pure  and 
spotless.  Neither  could  a  boy  begin  to  learn  a  trade  before  he 
was  well  grounded  in  the  elements  of  Christian  Doctrine,  and 
after  the  establishment  of  writing  schools  in  the  i4th  century 
he  was  expected  to  be  familiar  also  with  the  elements  of  general 
knowledge.  When  receiving  a  boy  as  an  apprentice,  the  master 
acted  in  the  name  of  the  whole  guild:  "I  will  engage  this  boy 
in  the  name  of  the  whole  guild. "  The  master  had  to  do  more 
than  teach  the  boy  "how  to  use  his  hands,"  for  he  took  upon 
himself,  "during  the  time  of  apprenticeship,  all  parental  obli- 
gations, educating  him  under  the  supervision  of  the  guild." 
The  master  was  advised  to  allow  his  apprentice  "a  small  sum 
for  bathing;"  and  the  apprentices  are  told  to  "use  this  money 
well,  for  every  laborer,  whatever  be  his  age,  must  keep  himself 
clean  in  body,  which  cleanliness  also  ministers  to  the  soul's 
good."4  They  are,  furthermore,  enjoined  to  hear  "every  Sun- 

1  For  further  details,  see  Chivalric  Education  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Education. 

2  So  run  the  statutes  of  a  glovers'  guild  of  Dan?ig  in  1412,  quoted  by  W. 
Stahl,  Das  deutsche  Handwerk,  Giessen,  1874,  I,  p.  100. 

3  J.  Janssen,  History  of  the  German  People,  transl.  by  M.  A.  Mitchell  and 
A.  M.  Christie,  London,  1896-1910,  II,  p.  n. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  34. 


THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        2OJ 

day  and  Holyday  a  mass  and  a  sermon  and  to  read  good  books. 
They  must  be  industrious  and  seek  not  their  own  glory,  but 
God's."  The  apprentice  was  obliged  to  pay  a  certain  fee, 
which,  however,  was  returned  to  his  parents,  if  he  proved  unfit 
for  the  trade;  if  he  ran  off  because  of  ill-treatment  received, 
the  master  was  forbidden  to  take  in  a  new  apprentice,  "because 
the  apprentice-fee  is  still  sitting  on  the  chair. "  If  he  made 
good,  he  was  advanced  to  the  rank  of  a  companion.  Upon  this 
occasion  the  master  addressed  him  thus,"  Thou  hast  till  now 
been  a  boy  and  hast  associated  with  boys,  now  thou  art  made 
a  companion  and  wilt  associate  with  companions;  but  if  the 
Lord  will  give  thee  the  grace  to  advance  to  the  rank  of  a  jour- 
neyman, thou  mayst  associate  with  honest  journeymen."2  An 
examination  finally  determined  the  fitness  of  the  companion  for 
the  position  of  journeyman,  and  he  was  advanced  to  this  rank 
amid  much  ceremony,  though  games  and  merrymaking  also 
entered  into  the  celebration.  The  journeyman  was  still  bound 
to  obey  his  master,  whom,  however,  he  was  free  to  choose. 
He  generally  went  on  travels,  to  increase  his  knowledge  and  to 
improve  his  skill  by  serving  different  masters.  This  travelling 
of  the  journeymen  was  a  common  practice  in  the  i4th  century 
and  became  compulsory  in  the  I5th.  After  having  attained  a 
certain  degree  of  perfection  in  his  trade,  the  journeyman  might 
expect  the  mastership,  which  the  guild  eventually  conferred  on 
him — if  the  need  for  a  new  master  arose — upon  the  ground  of 
some  skilled  piece  of  work.  These  customs  continued  to  prevail 
down  to  an  age  that  could  no  longer  realize  their  advantages, 
but  only  suffered  from  their  rigid  enforcement.  But  once  these 
customs  had  been  abolished,  the  system  of  apprenticeship  train- 
ing had  also  lost  the  mainstays  of  its  stability,  and  neither  the 
improved  elementary  school,  nor  the  manual  training  school, 
nor  the  technical  school  can  adequately  supply  what  was  lost. 
And  hence  our  educationists  and  economists  are  still  searching 
for  a  substitute  for  this  medieval  institution  that  was  well 
adapted  to  the  primitive  conditions  of  the  time,  and  which 
gave  artisans  and  mechanics  such  a  training  as  assured  them 
of  technical  skill  besides  a  class-consciousness  based  on  religious 
and  moral  grounds. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  organized  citizenry  would  not  confine 
their  educational  influence  to  the  guilds,  and  many  city  schools 

1  Ibid.,  p.  20. 

2  Stahl,  I.e.,  p.  222. 


2O8  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

were  opened  either  by  the  city  authorities  (scholce  senatorice] 
or  by  private  men.  These  schools,  as  a  rule,  were  purely  ele- 
mentary, but  occasionally  they  also  offered  advanced  courses. 
The  local  clergy  frequently  frowned  upon  them  as  undesirable 
rivals  of  their  own  institutions;  but  the  Church  in  general  pre- 
served a  neutral  attitude,  and  thus  it  is  not  surprising  that 
members  of  both  the  regular  and  the  secular  clergy  taught  in 
the  city  schools.1  Still,  the  teaching  body  of  these  schools  was 
largely  secular,  and  the  need  of  safeguarding  their  common 
interests  gave  rise,  towards  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  to  the 
teachers'  associations.  The  latter  copied  many  features  of  the 
guilds:  the  teachers  were  engaged  like  the  apprentices,  and 
several  years  were  spent  in  training  for  the  mastership  in  the 
teaching  profession.  One  feature,  however,  also  copied  from 
the  guilds,  could  not  but  work  harm  among  the  teachers,  viz., 
the  custom  of  wandering  from  place  to  place.  The  schoolmasters 
were  themselves  in  the  habit  of  going  from  place  to  place,  and 
set  up  their  schools  in  whatever  town  or  village  struck  their 
fancy.  It  was  not  long  ere  this  Wanderlust  took  hold  of  the 
pupils  also,  and  led  by  the  scholares  vagantes,  they  travelled 
from  place  to  place,  looking  for  bread  and  schooling.  This 
vagabondage  of  teachers  and  pupils  represents  the  reaction  of 
the  age  against  the  rigid  forms  of  the  medieval  schools. 

7.  The  highest  educational  achievement  of  the  Middle  Ages 
is  represented  by  the  universities,  and  they  are  the  last  word 
in  the  realization  of  the  cultural  ideals  of  the  age.  They  are 
representative  of  the  best  elements  of  the  spirit  and  customs  of 
the  period.  They  are  united  with  the  Church,  for  they  recog- 
nize the  Pope  as  their  supreme  head,  and  convert  their  faculties 
of  theology  into  the  homes  of  ecclesiastical  learning.  In  contrast 
to  knighthood,  they  represent  the  aristocracy  of  learning,  and 
the  graduates  of  the  universities  were  considered  socially  the 
equals  of  the  nobiles.  The  university  corporations  have  many 

i  In  illustration  of  the  liberal  and  generous  policy  pursved  by  the  Fcpes  in 
the  controversies  between  the  clergy  and  the  city  jchcols,  we  may  quote  Pope 
Alexander  III.,  who  in  1 170  directed  the  Aichbishop  of  Rheims  to  examine  into 
the  prohibition  passed  by  the  director  of  schools  at  Chalcns  on  the  Marne 
against  an  individual  teacher.  The  Pope  writes:  "  Ur,de  quoniam,  cum  donum 
Dei  sit  scientia  Jitterarum,  liberum  esse  debet  cuique  talextum  gratice  cut  coluerit 
erogare,  fraternitati  tuee  per  Apostolica  scripta  mandamus,  quatenus  tarn  Abbati 
quam  Magistro  scholarum  prcecipias,  ne  aliquem  probum  et  litteratum  virum 
regere  scholas  in  civitate  vel  suburbiis>  ubi  vcluerit,  aliqua  ratione  prohibeant  tel 
interdicere  qualibet  occasione  prtesurr.ant. "  Cf.  Schwarz,  Erziehungslehre,  2nd 
ed.,  1829,  I,  2,  p.  169. 


THE    SCHOOL   SYSTEM   OF  THE    MIDDLE    AGES.  2OQ 

points  in  common  with  the  guilds  of  the  citizenry,,  and  the 
university  degrees  (scholastic,  bachelor,  master)  mark  a  grada- 
tion of  rank  similar  to  that  of  the  three  kinds  of  members  of 
the  guilds  (apprentice,  journeyman,  master).  The  universities 
countenanced  the  growing  power  of  the  State,  and  eventu- 
ally proved  the  instrument  for  the  latter  to  monopolize  the 
schools.  With  their  learned  character  they  would  seem  to  be 
out  of  sympathy  with,  the  broad  interests  of  the  people.  Still, 
they  were  interdependent  on  all  that  concerned  the  masses;  and 
what  was  said  of  Oxford  may  be  said  of  other  universities  as 
well:  " Chronica  si  penses,  cum  pugnant  Oxonienses,  post  paucos 
menses  volat  ira  per  Angligenenses."  By  assembling  teachers  and 
students  from  all  countries  and  by  conferring  dignities  that 
were  recognized  in  all  Christendom,  the  universities  proved  a 
clearing  house  for  the  exchange  of  intellectual  values,  and  a 
mighty  agency  in  providing  the  broadest  possible  field  for  any 
ideas — whether  born  of  the  Crusades,  the  Schoolmen,  the  Hu- 
manists, or  the  religious  Reformers — to  spread  over  Europe. 

As  varied  as  are  the  relations  of  the  universities,  so  diverse 
are  also  their  origins.  Some  universities  grew  out  of  older 
ecclesiastical  institutions,  either  by  enlarging  and  making  in- 
dependent the  schola  externa — for  instance,  the  University  of 
Cambridge;1  or  by  uniting  under  one  management  several  insti- 
tutions that  had  been  independent  before — for  instance,  the 
University  of  Paris.2  The  aulce  built  by  Alfred  the  Great  may 
be  considered  the  beginning  of  Oxford  University,  and  Alfred 
is  rightly  called  the  founder  of  this  celebrated  seat  of  learning.3 
The  University  of  Naples,  founded  by  the  Emperor  Frederick  II., 
is  the  first  university  on  the  Continent  founded  by  royalty.  The 


1  "The  town  of  Cambridge  was  raised  into  a  seat  of  learning  first  by  the 
monks  of  Croyland,  a  place  about  30  miles  to  the  north  of  it.     Their  Abbot 
Goisfred  had  studied  at  Orleans,  and  promoted  their  teaching  (1109-1124)  at  a 
farm  called  (Tottenham  near  Cambridge,  and  afterwards  in  a  barn  at  Cam- 
bridge itself.     The  great  press  of  students  rapidly  raised  up  schools;  ard  though 
we  have  no  direct  proof  of  their  continuing  to  exist  for  seme  time,  these  may 
probably  have  been  the  germ  of  the  University."     Huber,  The  English  Uni- 
versities, ed.  by  Francis  W.  Newman,  London,  1843,  I,  pp.  61-62. 

2  The  earlier  palace  school  had  been  merged  in  the  cathedral  school  of 
Notre  Dame,  and  the  latter  was  the  nucleus  of  the  University  of  Paris.     The 
school  of  St.  Victor,  an  Augustinian  monastery  founded  by  William  of  Cham- 
peaux,  and  the  monastic  school  of  St.  Genevieve,  and  several  other  smaller 
secular  schools  were  affiliated  with  the  central  school  of  Notre  Dame.     Cf. 
Catholic  Encyclopedia,  s.  v.  University  of  Paris. 

3  Huber,  I.e.,  pp.  46  ff. 

14 


2IO  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION1. 

University  of  Bologna  must  be  traced  back  to  the  studies  of  law 
pursued  under  the  direction  of  the  judges  of  the  Imperial  Court 
residing  in  the  city.  The  brilliant  lectures  of  Irnerius,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  I2th  century,  attracted  large  numbers  of  law 
students  to  Bologna.  The  students  gathering  about  Constan- 
tine  of  Carthage,  a  baptized  Jew,  inaugurated  the  medical 
school  of  Salerno.  If  older  schools  form  the  nucleus  of  the  new 
institution,  the  teachers  establish  the  universitas;  but  if  the 
circles  of  students  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  university,  as 
they  did  in  Bologna  and  Salerno,  the  teachers  depend  on  the 
scholars,  and  the  latter  form  the  corporation  and  appoint  the 
rector  and  masters.  But  both  these  types  of  universities  agree 
in  this  that  they  constitute  corporate  bodies  possessing  full 
autonomy.  Originally,  this  autonomy  was  exercised  in  the  con- 
ferring of  the  teacher's  dignity  (magtster,  doctor),  while  the 
chancellor  enjoyed  the  exclusive  privilege  to  confer  the  right  to 
teach.  The  individual  teacher  was  at  first  authorized  to  confer 
the  bachelor's  degree,  but  since  1250  this  was  reserved  to  the 
university  as  such,  and  this  regulation  marked  the  introduction 
of  the  regular  university  degrees.1  The  privilege  of  being  amen- 
able only  to  the  university  court  was,  along  with  other  privi- 
leges, a  guarantee  of  the  independence  of  the  teaching  corpora- 
tions. The  studies  of  the  northern  universities  were  originally 
the  same  as  had  been  pursued  in  the  monastic  and  cathedral 
schools,  i.  e.y  theology  and  the  liberal  arts;  the  latter  were  taught 
also  in  the  Italian  law  and  medical  schools.  The  system  of  the 
faculties  (prdines]  owes  its  origin  to  the  separation  of  the  theo- 
logical studies  from  the  arts  course  and  to  the  later  addition  of 
medicine  and  Roman  law.  The  maxim:  universitatem  esse 
fundatam  in  artibus,  originally  expressed  this  historical  develop- 
ment, but  later  connoted  that  a  liberal  education  is  the  basis 
of  professional  studies.  The  idea,  too,  that  the  university  was 
the  home  of  all  the  sciences  came  into  being  at  a  comparatively 
late  time.  Originally,  the  term  universitas  signified  the  union 
of  the  teachers  and,  in  part,  also  of  the  students.  Studium 
generate,  another  common  term  for  university,  implied  that 
the  diplomas  of  the  universities  were  recognized  the  world  over. 
But  it  is  well  known  how  these  two  terms  subsequently  changed 
their  meaning,  just  as  with  the  ancients  eWwcXio?  eventually 
stood,  not  for  the  representatives  of  education  (its  original 
meaning),  but  for  its  content.2 


1  Huber,  I.e.,  pp.  26  ff.  2  Supra,  Introduction,  I,  9,  footnote;  ch.  IX,  7. 


THE   SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  2\l 

8.  The  aim  of  the  ecclesiastical  schools  was  the  moral  and 
intellectual  education  of  the  pupil,  and  they  were  much  assisted 
in  their  twofold  object  by  having  as  nucleus  the  boarding  school, 
which  constituted  the  "inner  school."  The  universities,  how- 
ever, having  largely  originated  in  the  "outer  schools,"  and  being 
intended  primarily  to  impart  knowledge,  lacked  the  helpful  in- 
,fluences  of  institutional  life  and  found  it  difficult  to  provide  a 
proper  substitute.  The  need  of  such  a  substitute  was  felt  the 
more  keenly,  as  the  view  prevailed  in  the  Middle  Ages  that 
discipline  is  inseparable  from  instruction,  and  that  education  is 
unthinkable  without  sound  discipline.  This  view  was  borne  out 
by  the  conditions  existing  among  the  university  students,  many 
of  whom  were,  indeed,  of  mature  age  and  mind,  yet  a  large 
percentage  of  them  gave  evident  proof  that  they  stood  sorely 
in  need  of  discipline.  Furthermore,  the  heads  of  religious  orders 
felt  that  when  sending  young  religious  to  the  university  they 
were  obliged  to  provide  for  them  safeguards  similar  to  those 
afforded  by  the  cloister,  and  hence  they  frequently  transferred 
the  "inner  school"  to  the  university  city.  Students'  inns,  col- 
leges, halls,  dormitories  took,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  place  of 
the  "inner  school,"  for  in  these  institutions  the  students  re- 
ceived board  and  lodging,  their  morals  and  application  were 
controlled  by  special  officers  (provisores},  and  provision  was 
made  for  preparatory  or  supplementary  instruction.  The  affili- 
ation of  these  institutions  with  the  universities  offered  little 
difficulty,  as  the  universities  themselves  tended  towards  the 
college  type  of  school.  Paulsen  describes  them  as  "collegiate 
foundations,  with  a  more  elastic  organization  than  that  of  the 
regular  abbey  schools,  and  concerned  rather  with  instruction 
than  with  the  inculcating  of  religious  practices."  The  colleges 
developed  in  the  different  universities  along  entirely  different 
lines.  The  colleges  came  to  be  the  most  important  feature  of 
the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  there  retarded 
the  development  of  the  university  faculties.  Some  of  the  col- 
leges of  the  University  of  Paris,  e.  g.y  the  Sorbonne  (founded  in 
1255),  were  important  centres  of  independent  teaching,  and  in 
the  middle  of  the  15th  century  the  students  of  the  various  col- 
leges were  in  the  majority,  though  the  regular  courses  of  the 
University  were  still  considered  the  most  important.  At  the 
German  universities,  the  students'  halls  never  attained  any 
such  position,  but  were  important  in  so  far  as  at  places  (for 

1  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des  gelehrte n  Unterrichts,  1885,  p.  15, 


212  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

example,  in  Cologne),  they  developed  into  preparatory  schools, 
which  became  known  in  the  I5th  century  as  "gymnasia." 

As  the  facultas  artium  dealt  with  the  liberal  arts,  which 
were  the  foundation  of  higher  education,  there  was  no  need  of 
special  preparatory  schools,  and  in  this  regard  the  medieval 
university  fulfilled  the  function  of  both  the  modern  university 
and  college.  But  local  conditions  occasionally  brought  about 
the  establishment  of  preparatory  schools,  either  by  branching 
off  from  the  parent  school  several  less  advanced  schools,  or  by 
affiliating  with  the  university  divers  smaller  schools.  Thus  the 
English  Bishop  Wykeham  of  Winchester  founded  not  only  a 
college  at  Oxford,  New  College  (1386),  but  also  opened  a  pre- 
paratory school  for  it  in  his  cathedral  city,  Winchester  College, 
whose  capacity  was  limited  to  70  students,  in  imitation  of  the 
number  of  Christ's  disciples.  King  Henry  VI.  followed  his 
example  by  founding,  in  1441,  for  the  same  number  of  students 
King's  College  in  Cambridge  and  a  preparatory  school,  Eton 
College.  The  University  of  Paris  controlled  in  the  ijth  century 
many  Latin  schools  in  and  outside  the  city,  and  in  the  beginning 
of  the  1 5th  century  the  University  of  Prague  was  the  centre  of 
the  whole  secular  school  system  of  Bohemia.2 

The  universities  of  the  Middle  Ages  show  some  defects. 
Their  organization  after  the  manner  of  the  guilds  impeded  the 
free  movements  of  the  teachers;  the  teaching  was  confined  to 
dry  dictation  and  commenting  on  texts;  and  to  us  their  dis- 
putations appear  vacuous  and  unfruitful.  But  they  are,  never- 
theless, landmarks  in  the  history  of  education.  They  were  the 
first  autonomous  corporations  of  teachers;  they  were  social  or- 
ganisms, equipped  with  rights,  self-perpetuating  by  co-opta- 

1  Wiese,  Das  hohere  Schulwesen  in  Preussen,  Berlin,  1864,  I,  p.  338.     The 
term  "gymnasium,"  generally  spelled  "gignasium"  or  "gingnasium,"  was  used 
in  the  Middle  Ages  in  its  primary  sense  (palestra)  for  monastery,  and  only 
occasionally   for  an  educational   institution.     Ducange   (s.  v.   Gymnasium)   is 
authority  for  the  statement  made  about  an  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino:  "Hoc 
sacrum  gymnasium  regere  promeruit; "  and  the  term  "gymnasium  monasteria/e" 
is  illustrated  by  "stadium  vitce  prcesentis  agonizando  percurrere;"  the  famous 
monastic  school  of  Bee  is  described  as  "gymnasium  Lanfranci;"  two  men  who 
were  kin  of  soul  are  described  thus:  "  Acsi  essent  in  uno  gingnasio  educati." 
The  circle  of  philosophers  whom  Pope  Urban  IV.    befriended,  are  called  a 
"philosophic  gymnasjum. "     (Joiirdain,  Geschichte  der  aristotelischen  Schrijten, 
tr.  by  "Stahr,  1831,  p.  55.)     Occasionally,  the  school  director  is  called  " gignasi- 
archa,"  and  the  pupil}  "gignasista."     But  for  a  particular  kind  of  school,  the 
designation  was  as  little  used  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  in  the  Renaissance;  cf. 
infra,  ch.  XXIII. 

2  Tomek,  Geschichte  der  Prager  Universitat,  1849,  p.  41 ;  cf.  ibidem,  pp.  187  ff. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.          213 

tion,  and  devoted  exclusively  to  the  conservation  and  trans- 
mission of  knowledge.  They  grew  into  real  conservatories  of 
higher  learning,  which  they  embraced  in  its  entirety.  Their 
union  of  the  various  faculties  is  the  embodiment  of  the  unity 
of  science;  and  their  grading  of  the  different  departments  of 
knowledge  embodied  the  truth  that  the  science  of  divine  things 
is  superior  to  that  of  human  matters,  that  philosophy,  based  on 
theology,  is  the  connecting  link  between  the  various  sciences, 
and  that  consequently  the  course  of  study  should  proceed  from 
the  general  sciences  to  the  special,  and  a  general  education 
precede  professional  training.  Even  if  the  freedom  of  teaching 
was  somewhat  restricted,  there  was  no  check  whatsoever  upon 
the  freedom  of  learning,  and  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  was 
much  facilitated,  by  the  uniformity  of  the  universities,  in  organ- 
ization, in  didactic  apparatus,  and  in  the  language  used  in  the 
lecture  halls.  With  such  conditions  obtaining  quite  generally, 
a  French  student  would  find  little  difficulty  when  taking  up  his 
studies  at  an  English  or  Italian  University. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  Content  of  Medieval  Education. 

i.  In  keeping  with  the  derived  character  of  their  culture, 
the  peoples  of  the  Middle  Ages  turned  for  the  content  of  their 
education,  first,  to  the  ennobling  elements  that  had  come  to 
them  from  outside  sources,  from  Christianity  and  classical  an- 
tiquity, and  only  secondly  to  what  could  be  drawn  from  their 
own  national  traditions.  Theology  was  the  contribution  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  represented  the  highest  knowledge;  it  was  the 
end-all  of  higher  studies  and  the  centre  about  which  all  educa- 
tion revolved.  Classical  antiquity  had  contributed  what  was 
rightly  considered  a  complete  and  perfect  course  of  general 
education,  the  seven  liberal  arts,1  and  the  latter,  were  recognized, 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the  standard  system.  A  deep 
meaning  was  attached  to  the  very  number  seven,  as  symbolizing 
the  seven  pillars  of  wisdom  or  the  seven  steps  in  the  soul's  ap- 
proach to  God.  The  seven  arts  were  also  compared  to  the  seven 
planets,  the  seven  virtues,  etc.  The  minds  of  the  age  were 

1  For  the  following  cf.  Willmann's  article,  Liberal  Arts  in  The  Catholic  En- 
cyclopedia. 


214  MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION. 

busy  with  the  meaning  of  the  individual  arts  and  with  their 
mutual  relations.  Their  praises  were  sung  in  verse  and  prose; 
puns  were  made  on  them;  and  their  content  was  expressed  in 
mnemonic  verses.1  Though  retaining  the  classical  name,  artes 
liberates,  the  age  failed  to  recognize  that  the  term  implied  a 
reference  to  the  free  man,  and,  following  the  fanciful  method  of 
Cassiodorus,  liberates  was  derived  from  liber,  the  book;  and  thus 
the  artes  were  conceived  as  the  sciences  contained  in,  and  taught 
through,  books.  Another  designation  for  the  liberal  arts,  sa- 
pientia  Hybernica,  or  methodus  Hybernica,  clearly  shows  the 
leading  role  played  in  the  school  system  of  the  early  Middle 
Ages  by  the  Irish  monks. 

Grammar,  dialectic,  and  rhetoric  are  called  trivium,  artes 
triviales,  artes  sermocinales,  artes  rationales,  logica.  Dialectic  is 
studied  in  the  schools  after  grammar  and  is  considered  to  be 
second  also  in  importance.  The  mathematical  sciences,  arith- 
metic, geometry,  music,  and  astronomy,  are  called  quadrivium? 
The  latter  were  also  called  artes  quadriviales,  reales,  or  physica, 
mathematica.  Cassiodorus  is  responsible  for  the  order  in  which 
they  are  generally  enumerated.3  The  writings  of  Marcianus 
Capella,  Cassiodorus,  and  Boethius  were  used  as  textbooks  be- 
sides many  compendiums  of  either  all  seven  arts  or  of  only  one, 
or  several,  of  them.  In  form,  the  schoolbooks  were  either 

1  For  instance,  in  Alcuin,  De  arte  gramm.,  in.;  Epist.  78;  Carmen  de  Pontif. 
et  Sanct.  Eccl.  Ebor.,  1431  sq.;  see  also  Rhabanus  Maurus,  De  inst.  cleric.,  c.  18 
sq.;  William  of  Conches,  De  elem.  philos.,  in  the  Opp.  Bedce,  Basil.,  1563,  II, 
p.  313;  Hugh  of  St.  Victor,  Erud.  did.,  Ill,  3.     For  a  poetical  description  of 
the  arts  by  Walter  of  Speyer,  see  Fez.  Thes.  Anecd.,  II,  3,  p.  27.    Minnesingers 
and  Meistersingers  also  treated  the  subject,  as  Henry  d'Andely  (see  infra), 
Muscatbliit,  Michael  Behaim.   Cf.  Liliencron,  Ueber  den  Inhalt  der  allgemeinen 
Bildung  zur  Zeit  der  Scholastik,  Munich,  1876,  p.  35.     The  liberal  arts  were 
often  represented  in  pictures;  Alcuin  describes  such  a  pictorial  representation. 
Of  the  mnemonic  verses,  the  following  were  most  popular:    Lingua,    tropus, 
ratio,  numerus,  tenor,  angulus,  astra;  and  the  barbaric  distich:    Gram  loquitur, 
Dia  vera  docet,  Rhe  verba  colorat,  Mus  canit,  Ar  numeral,  Geo  ponderat,  As  colit 
astra.     Tzetzes,    a    Byzantine  savant,  enumerates  the  arts  in  political  verses 
(XtX«£5es,   II,  525  sq.):    '0  KikXos  Kal  <rv/iWpao>a  Trdvrwv  rCjv 

frrjTopiKrjs ,   at>TTJs    <pi\offo(pias,    Kal  ru>v  reffffdpw  rt  rt\vlav  rlav  vir 
dptfyiotfffTjj,   fwvffiKijs  Kal  TTjs  yfd)(w.Tplas  Kal  rijs  oi'/pa^o/id^oi'os  avrijs 

2  Boethius  used  this  expression,  which  originated  from  a  mistaken  notion 
of  the  meaning  of  trivium. 

3  Marcianus  Capella,  following  Varro,  enumerates  the  arts  in  the  following 
order:  i.  grammar,  2.  dialectic,  3.  rhetoric,  4.  geometry,  5.  arithmetic,  6.  as- 
tronomy, 7.  music.     However,  Cassiodorus  enumerates  them  in  this  order: 
i.  grammar,   2.  rhetoric,   3.  dialectic,   4.  arithmetic,   5.  music,   6.  geometry, 
7.  astronomy. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.         215 

catechetical,  or  metrical,  or  contained  only  a  digest,  or  at  times 
only  a  tabular  statement  of  the  subject-matter  of  the  respective 
science.1 

Though  the  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts  was  held  in  high 
esteem,  and  though  the  several  arts  were  regarded  as  parts'  of 
one  organic  whole,  yet  they  were  never  regarded  as  of  equal 
value,  and  the  successive  development  of  the  single  arts  oc- 
casioned different  evaluations  of  them.  The  Quadrivium  was 
never  so  popular  as  the  Trivium,  and  was  generally  considered 
as  the  domain  of  the  specialist,  especially  after  its  subject- 
matter,  which  had  been  originally  drawn  only  from  older  en- 
cyclopedias and  grammarians  (supra,  ch.  XII,  4),  was  increased 
by  the  materials  taken  from  the  writings  of  Euclid,  which  had 
been  made  accessible  by  the  Arabians.2  There  was  some  specu- 
lation about  the  mysteries  of  space  and  number,3  and  also  some 
appreciation  of , the  aprioristic  character  of  mathematics,4  but 
this  branch  never  became  a  vital  element  in  medieval  educa- 
tion. Only  the  applied  sciences,  music  and  astronomy,  had  a 

1  For  the  literature  of  the  textbooks  in  grammar  and  rhetoric,  see  Eck- 
stein's article,  Lateinische  Sprache  in  Schmid,  Enzyklopadie,  ist  ed.,  XI,  pp. 
507  ff.  For  interesting  details  on  medieval  grammar  teaching,  see  Ch.  Durot, 
Notices  et  extraits  de  divers  manuscrits  latins  pour  servir  a  fhistoire  des  doctrines 
grammaticales  au  moyenage,  1868  (vol.  XXII  of  the  Not.  et  ext.  des  man.  de  la 
biblioth.  imperials.  Cf.  Prant\,GeschichtederLogik,  II  (textbooks  in  dialectic); 
Cantor,  Vorlesungen  iiberGeschichte  der  Mathematik,  I,  Leipzig,  1880,  pp.  703  ff. 
(textbooks  in  mathematics);  see  Lipowsky,  Das  Schulwesen  Bayerns,  1836,  for 
compendiums  with  tabular  statements.  The  last  famous  schoolbook  of  the 
Middle  Ages  to  include  all  the  materials  of  the  artes  (it  treats  other  matters 
besides)  is  the  Margaritha  philosophica  of  the  Carthusian  Gregory  Reisch  of 
the  1 5th  century.  It  contains  12  books:  i.  De  rudimentis  grammaticis;  2.  De 
principiis  logicis;  3.  De  partibus  orationis,  de  memoria,  de  condendis  epis to/is; 
4.  Arithmetical  5.  De  principiis  musicce,  i.e.,  musicee  speculativce  et  practice; 
6.  De  elementis  geometric,  again,  speculativce  et  practices;  7.  De  principiis  astro- 
nomies; 8.  De  principiis  rerum  naturalium;  9.  De  origine  rerum  naturalium; 
10.  De  anima;  n.  De  potentiis  animee;  12.  Principia  philosophies  moralis.  The 
form  of  the  dialogue  is  employed,  and  the  Strassburg  edition  of  1512  is  illus- 
trated. The  Appendix  contains:  Grcecarum  litterarum  institutiones,  Hebraica- 
rum  litterarum  rudimenta,  musicee  figuratcs  institutiones,  architectures  rudimenta, 
compositio  quadrantum,  astrolabii,  torqueti,  polymetriy  with  many  illustrations.1 

*  Euclid  was  first  translated  from  the  Arabic  by  Alexander  of  Bath,  the 
author  of  the  translation  known  as  The  Text  of  Campanus;  cf.  Sprenger,  Mu- 
hamed,  Berlin,  1861,  I,  p.  in. 

3  Cf.  the  description,  in  the  Eruditio  didascalica,  VI,  3,  of  the  busy  studies 
of  Hugh  of  St.  Victor,  who  studied  these  problems  deep  into  the  winter  nights. 

4  For  instance,  in,Rhabanus,  De  inst.  <7<T.,  c.  22  sq.     Of  the  Schoolmen, 
Roger  Bacon  gives  most  attention  to  mathematics,  which  he  calls  the  "alpha- 
bcturn  philosophies. "     (Erdmann,  Grundriss,  I,  §  212,  5.) 


2l6  MEDIEVAL    EDUCATION. 

kinship  with  the  ideals  of  the  age:  the  study  of  church  music 
naturally  led  to  a  study  of  the  musical  relations  and  to  improved 
methods  of  musical  notation;  and  the  movable  feasts  of  the 
ecclesiastical  year  required  the  clergy  to  be  familiar  with  the 
calendar.1  But  even  among  the  laity  familiarity  with  the  calen- 
dar and  some  knowledge  of  the  solar  system  seem  to  have  been 
not  infrequent.  Different  features  of  the  Ptolomaic  system— 
for  example,  that  beyond  the  ether  element  there  are  certain 
zones  or  heavens,  each  heaven  containing  an  immense  crystalline 
spherical  shell,  the  smallest  inclosing  the  earth  and  its  super- 
incumbent elements,  and  the  larger  spheres  inclosing  the  smaller 
— such  features  suggested  comparisons  with  Christian  ideas,  and 
brought  the  universe  much  nearer  to  the  mind,  the  fancy,  and 
poetry,  than  does  our  advanced  astronomy.  The  Hindu-Arabic 
notation  is  the  greatest  gift  of  medieval  mathematics  to  the 
intellectual  life  of  the  race,  but  a  long  time  time  elapsed  before 
it  became  generally  known.2 

2.  The  branches  of  the  Trivium  were  studied  quite  generally, 
and  represent,  in  a  narrower  sense,  the  cultural  education  of  the 
period.  However,  with  the  growing  ascendancy  of  Scholasticism, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  nth  century,  there  came  a  different 
evaluation  of  the  Trivium.  The  pre-Scholastic  period  closely 
followed  what  the  Fathers  had  written  about  the  various  sub- 
jects; <?.  g.,  Rhabanus  Maiirus,  in  his  work  on  clerical  training, 
scarcely  does  more  than  reproduce  the  viewpoints  of  St.  Augus- 
tine's De  Doctrina  Christiana  (supra,  ch.  XVI,  7).  Grammar 

1  The  science  of  the  calendar  was  taught  by  means  of  the  verses  of  the 
Cisiojanus,  which  date  from  the  loth  or  nth  century  and  are  truly  charac- 
teristic of  medieval  taste.     The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Feasts  of  January: 
Circumcisio  Domini   (Jan.   ist),  Epiphania  (6th),  Octava  Epiphanue  (i^th), 
Felix  (i4th),  Marcellus  (i6th),  Antonius  (i7th),  Prisca  (i8th),  Fabianus  (2cth), 
Agnes  (21  st),  Vincentius  (22nd),  Conversio  Pauli   (2^th),  Polycarpus  (26th), 
Carolus  M.  (28th);  and  these  Feasts  are  turned  into  the  following  mnemonic 
verses:  "Cisio  Janus  F.pi  sibi  vindicat  Oc  Feli  Mar  An  Prbca  Fab  Ag  Vincenti 
Pan  Pol  Car  nohile  lumen."     The  number  of  the  respective  day  of  the  month 
is  indicated  by  the  position  that  the  first  syllable  of  the  word  abbreviated 
occupies  in  the  verse;  thus  E  is  the  sixth  syllable,  Fe  the  fourteenth,  etc. 

2  The  medieval  scholars  had  only  an  imperfect  notion  of  the  value  of  the 
system.     Vincent  of  Beauvais  writes  of  it  rather  coldly — it  had  then   been 
introduced  only  a  short  time  before — in  his  Speculum  doctrince,  c.  16:  "Invents 
sunt  novem  figurce  (follow  the  numerals);  qualibet  in  primo  loco  ad  dexteram 
posita  significat  unitatem  vel  unitates,  in  secundo  denarium  vel  denarios^  in  tertio 
ccntenarium  etc.;  qucelibet  figura  posita  in  secundo  loco  significat  decies  magis 
quam  in  primo  et  sic  in  infinitutn.     Inventa  est  igitur  decima  figura  talis  o  nihil- 
que  reprcKsentat,  sed facit  aliam  figuram  decuphim  significure.  " 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  217 

was  considered  the  basis  and  mother  of  all  arts,  as  teaching  the 
correct  use  of  language  and  the  art  of  interpreting  texts.  It 
was  also  the  organon  of  theology,  because  the  latter  had  not 
yet  been  systematized  and  was  still  largely  confined  to  explain- 
ing Sacred  Scripture  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers.  Symbolical 
explanations  were  employed  to  demonstrate  that  there  was  no 
conflict  between  theology  and  classical  studies;  Vergil  and  Sen- 
eca were  dubbed  half-Christians;  Horace  was  styled  ethicus, 
teacher  of  morals,  and  from  him  Alc.uin  borrowed  his  surname 
"Flaccus,"  by  which  he  was  known  in  the  cultured  society 
that  gathered  at  Charlemagne's  court.  In  his  schools,  Gerbert 
read  other  authors  also:  Terence,  Juvenal,  Lucan,  Cicero,  Csesar, 
Sallust,  etc.  Though  the  age  did  not  appreciate  the  differences 
between  classical  Latin  and  low  Latin,  it  strove1  to  preserve  the 
purity  of  the  ancient  idiom.  The  science  of  tropes  and  figures 
was  applied  to  Sacred  Scripture,  and  rhetoric  was  thus  co- 
ordinated with  theology.  Yet  it  never  recovered  the  high  po- 
sition it  had  occupied  with  the  ancients,  for  the  Middle  Ages, 
though  preserving  the  technique  of  rhetoric,  had  no  deep  and 
vital  interest  in  the  art  of  language.  Pedagogical  works  in- 
sisted that  the  rhetoric  study  should  not  crowd  out  more  neces- 
sary and  higher  things,  and  that  its  real  usefulness  lies  only  in 
allowing  one  to  cover  the  ground  more  quickly  than  could  be 
done  by  reading  or  hearing  good  orators.1  Dialectic,  finally- 
called  by  Cassiodorus  oratio  concisa--  was  valued  partly  be- 
cause of  its  formal  aid  to  all  studies  and  partly  because  of  its 
being  a  weapon  against  the  sophisms  of  the  heretics.  The 
study  of  this  subject  was  based,  up  to  the  middle  of  the  nth 
century,  on  the  textbooks  of  Boethius,  the  Isagoge  of  Porphyrius, 
and  two  works  of  Aristotle  known  as  the  Vetus  logica,  De  cate- 
goriis  and  De  interpretatione. 

But  after  the  whole  organon  of  Aristotle  had  become  known 
to  F-urope,  especially  after  the  Schoolmen  had  converted  it  into 
a  ready  serviceable  tool,  it  was  inevitable  that  dialectic  studies 
should  flourish,  and  that  the  entire  system  of  education  should 
experience  a  corresponding  change.  When  the  Schoolmen  re- 
vived the  study  of  speculative  theology  and  began  to  construct 
a  complete  system  of  theological  sciences,  it  was  natural  that 
the  studies  preparatory  to  theology  as  well  as  to  other  studies 
should  assume  another  form,  and  that  the  art  of  defining,  dis- 
tinguishing, reasoning,  proving,  debating,  and  systematizing, 

1  Rhabanus,  I,  i,  cap.  19. 


2l8  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

should  be  held  in  higher  esteem  than  before.  Thus  logic  was 
materially  increased  with  an  apparatus  of  new  formulas,  and  a 
familiarity  with  its  terms  and  definitions  became  indispensable 
to  the  man  of  culture.  The  art  of  disputation  became  the 
university  of  all  science  and  research;  it  seemed  that  no  subject 
could  be  studied  otherwise  than  by  scrupulously  examining  the 
pro  and  cony  the  //  and  but,  and  the  pupil  had  to  travel,  as  early 
as  possible,  the  rugged  path  of  syllogistic  studies.  The  public 
disputation  took  the  place  of  the  speeches  and  recitations  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  schools.  Not  only  masters  and  scholars, 
but  pri/ices  and  prelates  attended  these  intellectual  tournaments: 
after  attending  a  long  disputation,  Charles  IV.  remarked  that 
he  would  not  go  to  dinner  after  having  enjoyed  so  intellectual  a 
feast.  And  even  the  masses  were  seized  with  the  spirit  of  the 
battle  of  the  reasons  for  and  against.  With  this  new  interest 
the  grammar  and  literary  studies  lost  in  favor:  the  number  of 
classical  school  authors  decreased,  and  modern  authors  were 
read  instead.  The  grammars  were  adapted  to  the  prevailing 
usage  and  legitimated  the  barbarisms  that  had  crept  into  the 
language.  The  application  of  dialectic  to  language  gave  rise 
to  a  new  science,  the  science  of  the  modistce,  so  called  from 
the  titles  of  their  works,"  De  modis  significant,  known  also  as 
grammatica  speculative*?  Rhetoric  received  more  practical  value 
by  being  co-ordinated  with  the  study  of  law,  particularly  with  the 
study  of  the  revived  Roman  law.  Its  new  title  has  quite  a  mu- 
sical ring:  Liberalium  artium  imperatrix  et  utriusque  juris  alumna. 
A  new  department  of  rhetoric,  the  ars  dictandi,  dealt  with  the 
style  to  be  used  in  letter  writing  and  in  business  affairs."  The 
friends  of  classical  literature  were  few,  and  fewer  still  were  the 
schools  devoted  to  it.  However,  Orleans  remained  a  city  of 
authors  and  grammar  studies.3  A  group  of  scholars,  among 
them  William  of  Conches,  Adelard  of  Bath,  and  John  of  Salis- 
bury, gathered  about  Bernard  of  Chartres  (born  c.  1070)  for 
the  purpose  of  studying  the  classics  both  scientifically  and 
aesthetically.  It  was  an  axiom  of  the  Chartres  (Carnotum) 

1  Eckstein,  1.  c.,  p.  513. 

2  The  object  of  the  ars  dictnndi  is  described  as    the    congrua  et  apposita 
litteralis  editio  de  quolibet  vel  mente  retenta  vel  sermone  ant  literis  declarata. 

3  He'.inand,  a  Cistercian,  who  died  1227,  in  speaking  of  the  chief  studies 
pursued  at  the  different  universities,  says:  " F.ccc  qiicernnt  clerici  Parisiis  artes 
liberates,  Aureliani  auctores,  Bononiee  codices  (the  corpus  juris),  Salerni  pyxides, 
Toleli  dcemoncs  (alchemy)."     Thurot,  1.  c.,  p.  114,  says,  " Aurelianis  cducat  in 
cunis  auctorum  lacte  tenellos. " 


THE  CONTENT  OF   MEDIp;VAL  EDUCATION.  219 

school  that  the  modern  writers  stood  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
ancients,  like  dwarfs  on  the  shoulders  of  giants.1  In  this  school 
Plato  was  preferred  to  Aristotle;  a  deep  interest  was  taken  in 
mathematics,  and  it  was  Adelard  of  Bath  who  acquainted  the 
West  with  Euclid's  works.  The  Scholastics  did  not  approve  of 
such  classicists,  and  the  Battle  of  the  Seven  Arts,  an  allegorical 
poem  written  in  the  ijth  century  by  the  Trouvere  Henry  d'An- 
ciely,  represents  the  struggle  between  Scholasticism  and  the 
movement  that  harked  back  to  the  glories  of  classical  antiquity. 
The  Orleanists  and,  the  Parisians  are  pitted  against  each  other; 
the  former  fight  under  the  banner  of  grammar  and  are  defended 
by  the  ancient  authors,''  while  the  latter  fight  under  the  banner 
of  logic  and  are  defended  by  theology,  physics,  surgery,  mantic 
art,  and  the  Quadrivium;  the  Parisians  gain  the  victory,  but 
the  poet  prophesies  that  the  day  shall  come  when  the  classical 
writers  will  be  reinstated  in  their  place  of  honor. 

3.  This  prophecy  was  fulfilled  when  Humanism  arose  in  the 
Kth  century.  Some  of  the  Humanists  were  opposed  to  the 
Church,  and  they  have  brought  the  whole  movement  of  Scho- 
lasticism under  suspicion,  so  that  it  is  difficult  for  many  of  our 
own  day  justly  to  appraise  the  work  of  the  Schoolmen.  But  it 
is  much  easier  to  ridicule  the  caricatures  of  Scholasticism  that 
appeared  in  the  days  of  its  decline,  than  to  appreciate  the  bril- 
liant work  wrought  in  the  period  of  its  glory:  "When  kings 
are  building,  draymen  have  something  to  do."  It  is  certainly  not 
fair  to  overlook  (because  of  the  dialectical  pedantry  with  which 
the  age  abounds,  and  which  savors  indeed  of  the  work  of  dray- 
men) the  truly  great  and  kingly  structures  reared  by  such  intel- 
lectual giants  as  Albert  the  Great,  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  the 
Seraphic  Doctor  Bonaventure.  Much  of  the  schoolwork  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  especially  in  dialectic,  resembles  the  scrolls  of 
Gothic  architecture.  However,  the  eye  must  not  be  riveted  on 
these,  but  must  take  in  the  vaulting  height,  flooded  with  light, 
and  must  dwell  rather  on  the  massive  columns  and  the  gorgeous 

1  The  axiom,  often  quoted  by  Bernard  as  well  as  by  Peter  of  Blois,  reads: 
"  Nos  esse  quasi  nannos  gi^antium  humcris  insidentes,  ut  possimus  plura  /';'.«  et 
remotiora  videre.,  non  utique  proprii  visus  acuwine  aut  emineniia  carports,  sed 
fjuia  in  ahum  subvehimur  et  extollimur  magnitudine  gigantea*; "  cf.  Schaarschmidt, 
Joh.  SartjMtnsis,  Leipzig,  1862,  pp.  60  ff. 

2  The  following  are  mentioned:  Donatus,  Priscian,  Persius,  Vergil,  Horace, 
Juvenal,  Statius,  Lucan,  Sedulius,  Propertius,  Prudentius,  Aratus,  Terence, 
Homer;  but  Plato,  Aristotle,  Porphyry,  Boethius,  etc.,  fight  on  the  side  of  the 
Parisians.    Cft  Liliencron,  1.  c.,  p.  47. 


22O  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

tints  of  the  stained  glass  than  on  minutiose  details.  The  ca- 
thedral of  Scholastic  science  combined  into  one  splendid  har-« 
mony  theology  and  philosophy,  the  teaching  of  the  Fathers  and 
the  wisdom  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  mysticism  and  dialectic. 
Whole  generations  and  whole  nations  joined  hands  in  rearing 
the  magnificent  temple,  but  after  all  it  was  permeated  by  one 
spirit  and  destined  to  serve  one  and  the  same  end.  The  great 
masters  did  not  engage  in  quarrelsome  dialectic;  they  revered 
and  loved  one  another;  and,  though  employing  the  form  of  the 
yuasf tones,  in  -  which  the  pro  and  con  were  examined,  they 
also  treated  their  subjects  both  systematically  and  connectedly. 
St.  Thomas'  Summa  contra  gentiles  is,  with  all  its  depth,  a  model 
of  transparent  clearness  and  genetic  thought-movement. 

As  the  Middle  Ages  were  confronted  with  a  culture  ready- 
made,  for  whose  assimilation  a  high  form  of  mental  training 
was  required,  they  had  to  cultivate  more  than  other  periods  in 
the  history  of  education  the'  formal  sciences.  Still,  they  were 
interested  also  in  the  sciences  that  deal  with  facts  and  realities; 
and  of  these  sciences  history  was  esteemed  most.  Though  this 
subject  had  no  definite  place  in  the  medieval  curriculum,  yet 
both  learned  and  unlearned  were  interested  in  the  records  of 
the  past.  The  historical  portions  of  the  documents  of  Faith, 
the  reverence  ever  shown  by  the  Church  for  her  past,  the  con- 
viction that  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  one  with  the  empire 
of  ancient  Rome — all  these  factors  were  incentives  to  historical 
studies.  The  textbooks  in  history  compiled  in  the  early  cen- 
turies of  the  Christian  era  by  Jerome,  Eusebius,  and  Sulpicius 
Severus  were  widely  used,  and  of  the  ancient  Roman  histories 
enough  was  still  extant  to  serve  at  once  as  a  source  and  a  model 
for  the  medieval  historian.  It  can  not  be  denied  that  what  did 
pass  current  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  history,  abounded  with 
myths  and  legends;  and  medieval  histories  fare  poorly  enough 
at  the  hands  of  present-day  critics.  Yet  works  such  as  the  Hanno- 
lied  and  the  Kaiserchronik,  both  dating  from  the  end  of  the  i2th 
century,  evidence  the  desire  of  connecting  the  present  with  the 
past  and  of  merging  in  one  harmonious  whole  Biblical,  Christian, 
and  ancient  elements.  Some  chronicles  also  show  that  serious 
efforts  were  made  to  separate  fact  from  fiction,  and  to  transmit 
to  the  young  only  such  facts  as  could  bear  the  light  of  searching 
criticism.  For  instance,  the  author  of  the  Kaiserchronik  says: 
"Certain  writers  invent  lies  and  patch  together  their  lies  with 
deceiving  words,  but  I  fear  lest  their  soul  will  suffer  for  this 
crime,  since  their  work  was  not  inspired  by  the  love  of  God. 


THE  CONTENT  OF    MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  221 

Theirs  is  but  teaching  lijes  and  falsehoods  to  the  children  that 
will  come  after  us.  The  latter  will  take  for  granted  what  is  but 
a  lie,  and  falsehoods  they  will  believe  to  be  true;  but  lies  and 
conceit  are  harmful  to  all,  and  the  wise  man  dislikes  to  hear  of 
such  doings. "  We  smile  at  the  town  chroniclers  who  begin  with 
the  creation  of  the  world  and  the  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve  and  then 
proceed  to  give  the  history  of  the  Jews,  the  Romans,  and  their 
own  country,  before  they  say  one  word  referring  to  their  local 
history.  Still,  their  joining  what  is  small  to  what  is  great  and 
their  connecting  the  present  with  what  is  remote  in  time  and 
place — this  reveals  a  sense  of  deep  reverence  for  the  records  of 
the  past;  and  Niebuhr  did  not  hesitate  to  class  the  author  of 
the  Chronicle  of  Cologne,  which  was  written  in  this  manner, 
"with  the  brightest  minds  and  truest  hearts." 

4.  The  sense  for  natural  history  was  less  developed,  and  the 
following  saying  of  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  is  typical  of  the 
general  spirit  of  the  age:  "The  whole  earth  is  of  less  value  than 
one  single  soul,  for  God  has  not  done  for  the  whole  world  what 
He  has  done  for  one  immortal  soul:  think  well  on't  and  adore 
His  holy  will."  Medieval  science  was  based  on  books  that 
were  not  favorable  to  the-  observation  of  nature,  and  the  few 
writings  of  the  ancients  that  continued  to  be  popular — particu- 
larly Pliny's  works — encouraged  the  collecting  of  curiosities  in- 
stead of  entering  into  the  nature  of  things.  The  scientific 
study  of  nature  was  unknown  except  among  the  alchemists, 
who  did  not,  as  was  formerly  believed,  toy  with  vain  experi- 
ments, but  were  engaged  in  solving  important  and  live  problems." 
However,  their  influence  on  general  knowledge  and  the  world- 
view  was  practically  nil.  Nature  study  occupied,  nevertheless, 
an  important  place  in  the  system  of  sciences.  The  Scholastics 
placed  it  in  the  middle  of  the  held  of  intellectual  vision,  because 
it  observes  the  intellectual  in  the  sensuous,  /.  e.y  the  law  in  the . 
phenomena.  The  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  keenly  alive  to 
the  beauties  of  nature,  and  could  well  commune  with  her  every 
mood.  The  medieval  poets  possessed  a  deep  and  true  under- 
standing of  nature's  language;  their,  fables  reveal  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  animal  life;  and  Dante's  comparisons  are 

1  Joh.  Janssen,  History  of -the  German  People,  London,  1^96,  I,  pp.  293  ff. 

2  In   his  Familiar  Ldters  on  Chemistry  (London,  1851,  III.  Letter,  pp.  25 
ff.),Liebig  has  shown  the  serious  and  scientific  aim  ot  alchemy.  In  the  reseaiches 
concerning  .the  philosophers'  stone  he  sees  the  beginnings  of  inorganic  chem- 
istry, and  in  those  concerning  the  elixir  of  life,  the  beginnings  of  organic  chem- 
istry. 


222  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATIONT, 

strongly  realistic.  The  knights  and  monks  were  not  blind 
to  scenic  beauties,  and  showed  exquisite  taste  in  selecting 
sites  for  their  castles  and  monasteries.  The  same  Bernard, 
whom  we  just  quoted  as  counselling  introspection,  did  not 
scorn  the  lessons  taught  by  nature:  "Much  that  thou  canst  not 
find  in  books  wilt  thou  find  in  the  woods,  and  the  tree  and  the 
stone  will  teach  thee  many  a  thing  that  a  master  can  not  teach;" 
and  these  words  the  realists  of  the  iyth  century,  the  disciples 
of  Francis  Bacon,  might  well  quote  in  defence  of  their  policy.1 
The  so-called  Physiology  which  were  very  popular  and  of  which 
copies  are  still  extant  in  Latin  and  Old-German  editions,  reveal 
a  quaint  union  between  the  religious  thought  of  the  period  and 
the  interest  in  nature:  they  are  books  of  edification,  purporting 
to  show  how  the  qualities  of  animals  symbolize  Christ  and 
Satan  as  well  as  the  virtues  and  vices  of  men.  But  that  natural 
objects  were  not  used  merely  for  the  purpose  of  comparison, 
but  were  examined  for  the  sake  of  gaining  a  knowledge  of  them, 
can  be  seen  from  the  respective  parts  of  medieval  encyclopedias. 
Although  these  treatises  on  natural  history  are  written  in  an 
unscientific  spirit  and  with  scant  knowledge  of  actual  conditions, 
yet  these  defects  will  be  pardoned  more  readily  when  we  re- 
member that  the  popular  encyclopedias  of  the  iyth  century 
discuss  dragons  and  basilisks  with  the  same  naivet£  as  the  works 
of  the  early  Middle  Ages.  Bartholemew,  surnamed  Anglicus  of 
Suffolk,  a  Friar  Minor,  compiled  in  the  i4th  century  an  en- 
cyclopedia of  natural  history,  De  proprietatibus  rerum  libri  XI X, 
and  at  least  fifteen  Latin  editions  of  it,  beside  many  French, 
English,  Dutch,  and  Spanish  editions,  were  in  circulation  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  i5th  century.2 

5.  The  encyclopedias  which  contained  information  gleaned 
from  many  fields,  were  of  special  importance  for  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  an  age  when  books  were  few  and 
costly,  these  encyclopedias  took  the  place  of  libraries.  They 

1  Comenius,  Did.  magna,  5,  8  and  18,  28. 

2  Liliencron,  1.  c.,  p.  27,  and  Gesner,  Isagoge  in  erud.  univers.,  cd.  Niclas, 
1775,  §25.     Bartholemew  used  Western  as  well  as  Arabian  authors,  and  wished 
only  to  collect  what  others  had  discovered;   he  says,  " Parum  vel  nihil  de  mto 
apposui,  sed  simplicittr  Sanctorum  vcrba  c-t  philosopkorum  dicta  pariter  ct  com- 
menta  veritatc  prtevia  sum  sccutus."     He  treats, the  following  subjects  in   19 
books:   i.  God;  2.  the  angels;  3.  the  soul;  4.  the  body;  5.  the  members  of  the 
body;  6.  the  periods  of  life;  7.  diseases;  8.  the  world  and  the  heavenly  bodies; 
9.  time  and  its  division;  10.    matter  and  form;    n.  air;  12.  birds;  13.   water; 
14.  and  15.  the  earth  and  its  parts;  1 6.  gems;  17.  plants;  1 8. animals;  19.  of  the 
accidents:  color,   smell,  taste,  fluidity,  number,  weight,  measure,  tone. 


THE  CONTENT    OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  223 

preserved  the  knowledge  of  such  sciences  as  could  not  claim 
any  popular  interest,  for  instance,  economics,  archeology,  and 
the  like;  by  introducing  details  and  by  using  illustrations,  they 
made  the  dry  materials  more  inviting;  and  by  treating  whatever 
was  of  interest  to  the  men  of  the  time,  they  connected  the  sci- 
ences with  the  present.  Theological  matters  are  invariably 
treated  first,  arid  the  secular  sciences  are  all  treated  from  the 
viewpoint  of  theology.  The  authors,  looking  more  to  amassing 
a  wealth  of  material,  pay  little  heed  to  style  or  the  order  of 
arrangement;  their  compilations  are  frequently  but  centos;  later 
writers  copied  entire  pages  and  chapters  from  their  predecessors; 
fables  and  errors  -were  transmitted  from  one  book  to  the  next. 
It  is  these  glaring  defects  that  have  brought  all  medieval  en- 
cyclopedias into  disrepute  and  have  prevented  many  writers 
from  properly  estimating  their  importance  for  the  history  of 
education.  Isidore  of  Seville  heads  the  list  of  the  medieval 
encyclopedists  (see  supra^  ch.  XVI,  8).  Rhabanus  Maurus'  De 
universo 1  is  the  most  important  encyclopedia  produced  in  the 
period  of  the  Carolingians.  The  Hortus  deliciarum  is  a  compi- 
lation made  in  the  i2th  century  by  the  learned  Herrad  of  Lands- 
berg,  Abbess  of  Hohenburg  in  Alsatia,  for  her  canonesses  who 
followed  the  rule  of  St.  Augustine;  Latin  poems,  many  set  to 
music,  are  inserted  in  the  text,  which  is  richly  illustrated  with 
Biblical  and  other  religious  pictures.  The  illustrations,  showing 
a  remarkable  skill  of  execution,  have  given  the  work  a  special 
interest  for  the  art  historian.2  The  Eruditio  didascalica  (or  Dt- 

1  In  22  books  the  following  subjects  are  treated:   i.  God  and  the  angels; 
2.  the  human  race;    3.  persons  of  the  Old  Testament;    4.  persons  of  the   New 
Testament;  martyrs,  clerics,  monks;  heretics;  divine  service;    5.  sacred  writ- 
ings; canon  of  the  Gospels  and  the  Councils;  the  paschal  cycle;  canonical  life, 
etc.;  6.  man  and  his  organs;  7.  periods  of  life,  degrees  of  relationship,  marri- 
age, death,  etc.;  8.   animals;  9.   the  world;  elements,  heaven,  light,  heavenly 
bodies,  etc.;  10.   time;    moment,  hour,  day,  week,  month,  year,  century;  the 
feasts;  11.  water;  ocean,  sea,  river,  etc.;  12.  the  earth;  paradise,  parts  of  the 
earth,  islands,  etc.;   13.    mountains,  valleys,  groves,  shores,  etc.    (here  also 
Erebus  and  Cocytus);  14.  the  city;  streets,  market,  town  hall,  gymnasium, 
theatre,  citadel,  bath,  prison,  temple,  graves,  etc.;    15.  of   philosophy;  the 
poets,  sibyls,  magicians,  hdathen;   16.  of  languages;  names  of  nations,  with 
derivation;  terms  pertaining  to  public  life  and  military  service;  17.   mineralogy; 
1 8.  weights,  measures,  number,  music,  medicine;  19.  agriculture  and  botany; 
20.  military  and  naval  affairs;  21.  trades;  22.  daily  life;  meals,  utensils,  etc. 

2  Cf.   Engelhard,   Herrad  von  Landsberg,    Stuttgart   and  Tubingen,   1818. 
The  manuscript  of  the  Hortus  deliciarum  was  kept  at  Strassburg,  but  was 
destroyed  by  fire  along  with  the  city  library  during  the  siege  of  1870;  but 
fortunately  a  copy,  made  in  Paris,  is  still  extant.     The  pictures  have  been 


224  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

dasca/os,  or  Didascaliori)  by  Hugh  of  St.  Victor,  an  Augustinian 
monk  (born  c.  1097,  died  1141  in  his  monastery  near  Paris),  is  a 
book  on  methods  rather  than  an  encyclopedia.  It  is  especially 
important  for  its  system  of  the  sciences,  which  was  adopted  by 
all  subsequent  encyclopedists.  Philosophy,  according  to  this 
work,  includes  all  knowledge,  and  is  defined  as  the  disciplina 
omnium  rerum  humanarum  atque  divinarum  rationes  plane  in- 
vestigans  (I,  5);  it  is  divided  into  philosophia  theoretica^  practica^ 
mechanicay  logica  (11,2);  theoretical  philosophy  is  divided  into 
theology,  mathematics  (arithmetic,  music,  geometry),  and  phys- 
ics; practical  philosophy  is  divided  into  ethics,  economics,  poli- 
tics, which  treat  of  the  individual,  the  family,  and  the  State 
(II,  20);  the  mechanical  field  embraces  the  seven  mechanical  arts 
(called  also  adulterince^  mechanicus  being  derived  from  mcechus): 
of  the  weaver,  the  smith,  the  sailor,  the  farmer,  the  hunter,  the 
physician,  and  the  actor.  Logic  is  called  the  disciplina  sermo- 
cinalis,  because  it  treats  of  words;  it  is  partly  grammatica,  partly 
dissertiva^  i.  e.,  dialectic  (III,  19).  One  bond  unites  all  the  sciences, 

frequently  reproduced.  Engelhard  gives  a  svrrmary  of  the  contents  of  the 
book.  The  whole  is  based  on  the  Bible  narrative,  and  the  pictures  illustrate 
texts  from  Scripture.  Cosmology  is  treated  in  connection  with  the  creation; 
Sol  appears  on  the  sun  chariot.  The  fall  of  Adam  ard  Eve  and  the  building 
of  the  Tower  of  Babel  intrcdi.ee  mytholcgy  and  the  profane  arts.  Here  a 
picture  represents  the  nine  Muses  and  the  seven  liberal  arts:  in  the  centre  is 
philosophy,  from  whose  headgear  three  heads  issue,  labelled  elhica,  logira,  and 
physica;  below  philosophy  Sccrates  and  Plato  are  seen  writing.  The  arts  issue 
from  philosophy  as  streams,  but  the  text  is  added,  "  Spiritus  Sanrtus  est  inventor 
septem  liberalium  artium."  Female  figures  represent  the  arts:  Grammar  ap- 
pears with  book  and  rod;  Rhetoric  with  tablet  and  stylus;  Dialectic  with  a 
dog's  head  in  her  hands;  Arithmetic  with  a  knotted  rope;  Geometry  with  a 
pair  of  compasses  and  a  rule;  Astronomy  with  bushel  and  stars.  Ciicles  and 
semichdes  with  appropriate  texts  surround  the  whole  group.  Beneath  it  four 
figures  read  and  write,  with  black  birds  peiched  on  their  shoulders.  In  expla- 
nation the  text  is  added,  " Isti  immundis  spiritibus  inspirati  scribunt  artem 
maguam  et  poeticam  fabulosa  commenta."  After  the  history  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment follows  an  account  of  general  history  to  the  reign  of  Tiberius;  after  this 
follows  the  history  of  the  New  Testament,  which  is  interspersed  with  many 
digressions  owing  to  the  need  of  explaining  the  symbols.  Thus  the  Sirens 
enticing  Ulysses  represent  the  temptations  of  the  world;  the  picture  of  the  ship 
offers  an  occasion  for  further  digressions  arent  the  meaning  underlying  the 
different  names  of  ships  and  the  names  of  their  parts.  After  this  the  subject 
of  the  Chuich  is  treated:  her  organization,  ministers,  her  mission,  etc.,  are 
treated  in  detail.  The  work  contains,  besides,  a  list  of  the  popes,  a  calendar, 
martyrology,  and  the  dates  for  the  Easter-tide  frcm  1175  to  1707.  A  picture 
of  Herrad  and  her  cancnesses  is  the  last  of  the  bcok.  The  Latin  language  is 
used  throughout  the  work,  but  of  the  rr.cre  diffcult  words  (about  1200)  the 
German  equivalents  are  given. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  225 

and  if  but  one  branch  is  missing,  the  rest  will  be  unequal  to  the 
task  of  making  one  a  philosopher  (III,  5).  Poetry  and  history  are 
not  included  in  the  orbis  discipline;  they  are  appendices  artium  and 
are  of  value  only  to  such  as  have  been  graduated  from  the  artes} 
6.  The  encyclopedias  of  the  Dominican  Vincent  of  Beauvais 
(Bellovacensis),  surnamed  Speculator  (from  the  title,  Speculum, 
of  his  works),  and  who  died  in  1264,  are  the  most  comprehensive 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  His  works  follow  the  order  of  Holy  Writ. 
The  first  subject  treated  is  the  Creator  and  the  Creation;  the 
second,  the  fall  of  man  and  his  restoration  with  the  aid  of  science 
and  moral  discipline;  and  the  third,  the  chronological  sequence  of 
events.  The 'four  Mirrors  are  arranged  .accordingly:  the  Specu- 
lum naturale  treats  of  God,  the  angels,  and  nature,  according 
to  the  order  of  the  hexaemeron;  the  Speculum  doctrinale  treats  of 
the  sciences,  and  is  the  encyclopedia  proper;'2  the  Speculum  mo- 
rale treats  of  virtues,  the  last  things,  and  sin;  the  Speculum 
historiale  gives,  in  its  32  books,  the  history  from  the  Creation 
down  to  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  II.  Only  three  parts 
of  the  whole  were  written  by  Vincent,  the  Speculum  morale  being 
added  by  another  author,  though  not  before  the  beginning  of 
the  i4th  century.  The  text  is,  to  a  great  extent,  not  original, 
but  compiled  from  many  sources:  theBible,  the  Fathers,  the 
classics,  Arabian  writers,  etc.  With  the  methods  of  study  Vincent 
deals  partly  in  the  first  book  of  the  Mirror  of  Sciences  and  partly 
in  a  separate  treatise,  De  eruditione  filiorum  regalium^  dedicated 
to  Queen  Margaret  of  France;  chapters  3-22  treat  of  teaching, 
and  here  Hugh  of  St.  Victor  is  the  chief  source.3 

1  In  the  Venetian  ed'tion  of  Hugh's  works  (1638)  the  EruHitio  didascalica 
is  printed  as  the  beginning  of  the  third  part  (pp.  1-17).  It  contains  six  hooks 
(the  seventh,  de  eruditione  iheologica,  may  be  considered  an  appendix).  The 
following  subjects  are  treated  in  the  six  books:  i.  dc  studio  Ic^-ndi  in  general; 
2.  of  the  division  of   the  sciences;   3.  of  the  conditions  of  study,    the  aids  to 
study,  memory,  etc.;  4.  of  sacred  writings;  5.  of  the  interpretation  of  texts.; 
6.  of  the  study  of  Sacred  Scripture. 

2  In  its  seventeen  books  the  following  subjects  are  treated:    i.  introduction 
and  vocabulary;  2.  grammar;  3.  logic,  rhetoric,  poetics;  4.  of  the 'science  of 
practical  life;  ^.  of  good  morals  (ch.  48,  De  pueri  instructions,  is  largely  taken 
from  St.  Augustine);  6.  economics;  7.  politics;  8.-io.  law  matters;  n.  of  the 
mechanical  arts:  wool-dressing,  architecture,  military  science;  theatre,  navi- 
gation, commerce,  hunting,  agriculture,  alchemy;  12.  practical  medicine;  13. 
theoretical  medicine  (physiology);  14.  diseases;  15.  Physica  or  naturalis  philo- 
sophia:  metaphysics,  natural  history,  and  mythology;  16.  mathematics,  includ- 
ing some  metaphysics;  17.  theology,  divided  into:  a)  theoloyia  fabuiosa,  i.e., 
mythology,  and  b)  Christian  theology. 

3  Cf.  McCormick,  History  of  Education,  pp.  118  ff. 

15 


226  MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION. 

All  later  compilers  drew  upon  Vincent's  work.  The  Speculum 
suggested  Brunetto  Latini's  Grand  Tresor,  which  is  the  first 
encyclopedia  written  in  a  modern  language  and  calculated  there- 
fore to  appeal  to  a  larger  reading  public  than  the  Latin  en- 
cyclopedias. Latini  was  the  teacher  of  Dante,  and  the  universal 
tendency,  so  characteristic  a  trait  of  the  poet,  can  be  traced  to 
his  influence.1  Present-day  writers  are  wont  to  consider  Dante 
the  first  of  the  Humanists,  since  he  extolled  the  greatness  of  old 
Rome  and  popularized  the  ancient  ideas.  Yet  in  so  doing  the 
poet  never  leaves  the  medieval  circle  of  thought,  for  all  his 
thinking  and  imagining  was  so  deeply  rooted  in  it  that  he  is 
its  most  brilliant  representative.  If  anything  of  Dante  may 
be  called  modern,  it  is,  besides  his  language,  .his  subjectivity, 
which  does  not  (after  the  manner  of  the  Middle  Ages)  render 
itself  up  to  the  treasure  of  knowledge  and  make  itself  the  re- 
ceptacle of  ideas;  rather  he  boldly  introduces  his  own  soul,  its 
hopes  and  fears,  its  love  and  hate,  into  the  picture  of  heaven 
and  hell.  We  can  not  expect  to  exhaust  the  meaning  of  the 
Divine  Comedy  by  showing  its  relation  to  the  medieval  encyclo- 
pedias, yet  it  is  illuminating  to  look  at  the  wonderful  poem 
from  this  viewpoint  also.  The  Divine  Comedy  is  a  picture  of 
the  universe;  a  commentary  on  it  is  an  encyclopedia;  and  the 
Florentines  did  well  in  establishing  a  professorship  for  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  work  of  their  greatest  townsman.  The  poet 
tells  us  that  heaven  and  earth  have  worked  on  his  poem,2  and 
we  may  truthfully  add  that  all  sciences  have  joined  hands  in 
creating  it:  the  philosophy  of  history  and  sociology  supplied  the 
basic  ideas;  astronomy  and  physics  reared  the  framework  of  the 
gigantic  structure;  ancient  history  furnished  the  characters,  es- 
pecially for  the  first  part;  theology  and  Scholasticism,  conceived 
in  the  spirit  of  the  great  Aquinas,  furnished  the  thought-content 
of  the  two  last  parts;  historical  science  was  the  guide  through 
the  places  that  have  been  the  scenes  of  the  good  or  bad  deeds 
of  men;  and  geography  and  natural  history  furnished  the  color- 
ing for  the  pictures  that  are  scattered  with  a  profuse  hand 
throughout  the  work.  The  Divine  Comedy  shows  splendidly 
what  can  be  accomplished  by  a  union  of  science  and  poetry. 

1  Dante  calls  him  the  master  who  "taught  him  hourly  how  man  makes 
himself  eternal"  (Inferno,  15,  85).     The  Tesoro,  or  Tesoretto,  is  an  allegorical 
didactic  poem  in  Italian;  but  the  larger  work,  Li  Litre  don  Tresor,  or  Grand 
Tresur,  Brunetto  wrote  in  French,  but  a  contemporary,  Bono  Giamboni,  trans- 
lated it  into  Italian. 

2  Par.,  25  in. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION.  22/ 

It  was  Dante's  aim  to  concentrate  the  scattered  efforts  of  his 
nation,  to  give  to  Italian  poetry  a  worthy  content,  and  to  create 
a  foundation  for  Italian  culture;  and  this  aim  the  Divine  Comedy 
has  realized  in  a  way  that  almost  surpasses  the  fondest  dreams 
of  the  poet. 

7.  Dan'te  and  Brunette  stand  alone  in  their  efforts  to  treat 
scientific  subjects  in  a  modern  language,  for  it  was  the  general 
opinion  of  medieval  scholars  that  Latin  should  be  the  medium 
of  expression  in  science  as  well  as  in  education.  In  that  age 
Latin  was  not  a  dead  language,  nay,  not  even  a  purely  literary 
idiom,  as  it  was  the  language  not  only  of  the  Church,  but  also 
of  public  life  and  diplomatic  intercourse.  It  had  never  ceased 
to  influence  the  languages  of  Southern  Europe;  it  had  accepted 
a  new  metrical  principle  by  introducing  the  rime;  and,  being 
used  so  generally  in  the.  sciences,  it  was  continuously  readjusting 
itself  to  the  current  way  of  thinking.  But,  being  a  literary 
language,  it  was  still  learned  through  written  grammar,  and  thus 
preserved  its  scientific  character.  A  happy  comparison  has  it 
that  Latin  is  the  queen  of  languages,  Greek  the  teacher,  and 
Hebrew  the  mother  of  tongues,  while  all  three  are  in  common 
the  language  of  divine  worship  and  of  the  glad  tidings  of  Chris- 
tianity.1 Through  the  study  of  its  logical  side,  language  became 
connected  with  philosophy.  The  writings  that  treated  this  phase 
of  the  subject  generally  bore  the  title  De  modis  significandi. 
One  of  these  books,  included  now  among  the  works  of  Duns 
Scotus,  is  praised  by  the  philologist  Haase  as  the  "first  complete 
system  of  a  philosophy  of  grammar."  The  study  of  Greek  was 
never  neglected  entirely  in  the  West,  yet  never  became  during 
the  Middle  Ages  a  real  element  in  general  education.  During 
the  centuries  previous  to  the  Eastern  Schism  there  were  reasons 
of  Church  and  State  that  encouraged  the  study  of  this  language; 
and  the  Benedictine  monasteries  in  Italy  had  their  fratres 
Ellinici.  In  the  7th  century  the  learned  Greek  scholar,  Theo- 
dore of  Tharsus,  was  appointed  the  Primate  of  the  Church  in 
England,  and  it  is  said  that  even  thirty  years  after  Theodore's 
death  one  could  meet  men  in  England  who  were  as  much  at 
home  in  both  Latin  and  Greek  as  in  their  native  tongue.3  Charle- 
magne ordered  that  the  Bishops  of  Osnabriick  should  have 
Greek  taught  in  their  cathedral  school,  in  order  to  fit  clerics 

1  Hugo  von  Trimberg  in  his  Rentier,  22,  278. 

2  Haase,  De  medii  cevi  studiis  philologicis,  Breslau,  1856. 

3  Cf.  Cramer,  De  Greeds  medii  tcvi  studiis\  1848. 


228  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

for  the  diplomatic  service.1  At  the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald 
it  was  customary  to  insert  Greek  words  and  phrases  in  Latin 
poems.  An  elementary  Greek  textbook,  dating  from  the  gth 
or  loth  century,  has  been  found  in  Laon.'  It  is  true  that  the 
interest  in  philology  decreased  with  the  spread  of  Scholasticism; 
still  by  accepting  many  of  the  teachings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
the  Schoolmen  encouraged  the  study  of  original  Greek  texts. 
Robert  Grossetete  (died  1255)  was  the  first  to  translate  from 
the  original  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  and  Thomas  Aquinas 
heartily  seconded  these  efforts:  "Throughout  the  Middle  Ages 
there  is  a  steady  increase  in  the  knowledge  of  the  books  and  the 
educational  methods  of  classical  antiquity."  The  conviction 
that  deeper  scientific  research  is  impossible  without  a  knowledge 
of  Greek,  is  responsible  for  the  custom  of  giving  Greek  titles  to 
books;4  and  occasionally  the  court  poets  represent  their  heroes 
as  being  accomplished  Greek  scholars.5  It  was  not  the  School- 
men, but  the  glossarists  of  Roman  law  at  Bologna  that  coined 
the  phrase,  Grceca  sunt^  non  leguntur.  The  establishment  of  the' 
Latin  Empire  in  Constantinople  (1204)  appeared  to  offer  new 
opportunities  for  intercommunication  between  the  East  and  the 
West;  Pope  Innocent  III.  called  upon  the  University  of  Paris 
to  send  Greek  scholars  to  Constantinople,  and  Philip  August 
opened  in  Paris  a  Collegium  Constantinopolitanum  for  young 
Greeks.6  But  it  was  only  the  efforts  made  in  the  I5th  century 
towards  the  Reunion  and-  the  exodus  of  Greek  scholars  after  the 
Turkish  invasion,  that  brought  about  in  Europe,  where  the 
Humanists  had  prepared  the  ground,  a  •  real  familiarity  with 
Greek  culture.  To  understand  and  appreciate  Greek  art  and 
poetry  was  not  given  to  the  Middle  Ages,  but  it  is  the  un- 
dying glory  of  that  period  to  ha.ve  incorporated  into  its  own 
philosophy  the  leading  ideas  of  the  greatest  of  the  Greek  phi- 
losophers, Plato  and  Aristotle.  Greek  philosophy  is  after  all  of 
greater  value  than  Greek  philology,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted 

'The  order  is  quoted  in  Conring,  De  antiquitatibus  academicis,  1739,  pp. 

73>3°2- 

2  Eckstein,  Analekten  zur  Geschichtt  der  Pddagogik,  Halle,  1 861 . 

3  Dilthey,  F.inleitung  in  die  Geisteswissenschaften,  1884,  p.  452. 

4  Thus  Bernard  of  Chartres  called  his  work  Megakosmus  and  Mikrokosmus; 
William  of  Conches,  Peri  didaxeon;  John  of  Salisbury,  Po/icraticus,  or  Meta- 
logicus. 

5  The  passages  are  quoted  by  A.  Schult7,  Das  hofische  Leben  im  Mittelalter, 
Leipzig,  1879,  I,  pp.  120  ff. 

6  Jourdain,  1.  c.,  pp.  51  ff. 


THE  CONTENT  OF   MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  229 

that  a  later  period  studied  this  philology  to  the  neglect  of  Greek 
thought. 

Hebrew  had  even  in  the  Patristic  period  been  studied  only 
by  such  as  were  extraordinarily  industrious,  and  in  the  Middle 
Ages  its  study  was  rarer  still.  Lanfranc  taught  Hebrew  in  his 
school  at  Bee,  and  the  subject  is  mentioned  among  the  studies 
of  the  University  of  Paris,  yet  it  appears  that  there  was  no 
unbroken  line  of  teachers  of  Hebrew  at  the  University.  In 
1312  the  Council  of  Vienne  had  decreed  that  chairs  of  Hebrew 
be  established  in  Paris,  Oxford,  Salamanca,  and  Bologna- 
Germany  was  not  considered  the  home  of  higher  learning — 
but  this  decree  was  never  fully  carried  out.1  Besides  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  subject  itself,  there  was  the  strong  antipathy  against 
the  Jews,  who,  indispensable  as  teachers  of  Hebrew,  were  the 
victims  of  a  general  race  hatred.  Moreover,  the  Vulgate  of 
St.  Jerome  was  deemed  far  and  away  superior  to  the  original 
Hebrew  text.  Cardinal  Ximenes,  who  was  responsible  for  the 
Complutensian  Polyglot,  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  Vulgate 
stands  midway  between  the  original  Hebrew  and  the  Septuagint, 
like  the  Cross  of  Christ  between  the  crosses  of  the  robbers. 

8.  The  Arabian  language,  being  the  key  to  a  rich  scientific 
literature,  was  widely  studied  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and,  being 
the  living  tongue  of  a  civilized  people,  it  exercised  an  abiding 
influence  on  the  languages  of  modern  Europe.  The  learning 
and  culture  of  the  Mohammedans  had  developed  phenomenally, 
and  in  mathematics  and  history  the  followers  of  the  Prophet  had 
soon  outstripped  the  Christian  schools.  In  the  7th  century  the 
Arabians  had  been  the  pupils  of  the  Eastern  Christians,  but 
after  the  loth  century  they  were  the  teachers  of  the  Western 
Christians.  Mohammedan  culture  is,  despite  its  opposition  to 
Christian  culture,  still  somewhat  analogous  to  it:  it  was  born 
of  a  religious  principle;  it  assimilated  pre-existing  elements  of 
culture;  it  drew  into  its  circle  different  nations,  and  bound 
them  together  for  the  purpose  of  intercommunicating  their 
influences.  Mohammedan  science  is  based  on  the  deposit  of 
faith,  and  a  traditional  saying  has  it  that  "the  scholars  are  the 
heirs  of  the  Prophet. "  Theology  and  the  closely  allied  study  of 
law  developed  from  the  study  of  the  Koran.  Among  the  non- 
Arabic  peoples  the  study  of  law  led  to  the  study  of  language, 
and  the  latter,  having  been  begun  by  the  Arameans  and  Per- 
sians, was  continued  and  more  fully  developed  'by  the  Arabians. 

J  L,  Geiger,  Johann  Reuchliny  Leipzig,  1871,  p.  loj. 


23O  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

Because  of  the  instruction  in  the  Koran  the  need  for  schools  of 
reading  and  writing  was  felt  early,  and  the  elements  of  these 
branches  were  taught  in  theMekteb,  which  were  conducted  either 
in  connection  with  the  mosques  whose  personnel  was  employed 
for  teaching,  or  as  private  schools,  opened  near  markets,  wells, 
or  burial  places,  etc.  The  new  religion  supplied  much  of  the 
educational  content;  other  elements  grew  from  the  contact  with 
Greek  education.  Of  the  liberal  arts,  the  Arabians  cultivated 
logic  and  mathematics  most;  of  rhetoric  they  took  as  much  as 
seemed  to  improve  their  own  art  of  language,  while  the  polite 
literature  of  the  Greeks  exerted  but  little  influence  on  them; 
but  the  study  of  the  natural  sciences  and  of  medicine  they 
pursued  with  remarkable  success.  Arabian  philosophy  early 
evinced  a  tendency  towards  polymathy,  and  many  encyclopedias 
were  written  by  Arabian  philosophers,  the  principal  ones  being 
Alkendi's  Book  of  Science  and  of  Its  Division,  of  the  9th  century, 
and  Ibn  Sina's  (Avicenna)  Well-Ordered  Pearls ',  of  the  nth 
century.1  Originally,  the  mosques  were  the  seats  of  higher 
learning.  Under  the  same  roof  the  congregation  worshipped,  the 
scholar  explained  the  law,  another  interpreted  a  poet,  and  a 
third  recited  his  own  verses.2  Since  the  nth  century  the  State 
and  liberal  individuals  founded  higher  schools  (the  madrasas)^ 
which  spread  from  India  as  far  west  as  Spain.  Their  organiza- 
tion was  varied  and  allowed  the  greatest  freedom  in  studies  to 
both  teachers  and  taught,  the  State  interfering  only  when  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  religious  instruction  was  endangered.  Travel- 
ling teachers  and  pupils  made  possible  the  intellectual  intercourse 
between  schools  far  distant  from  one  another.3  The  interest  in 


1  The  titles  of  the  Moslem  encyclopedias  .are  varied  enough:  The  Supplies 
of  the  Sciences;  The  Spring  of  the  Sciences;  The  Marrow  of  the  S.;  The  Advance 
Guard  of  the  S.;  The  Divine  Tree;  The  Jewels  of  Knowledge;  and  the  like.     In 
their  arrangement  the  encyclopedias  differ  much;  in  several  we  find  a  scheme 
of  fourteen  sciences,  for  instance,  in  Sojuthi  (1^05):  i.  fundamental  doctrines 
of  faith;  2.  exegesis;  3.  science  of  tradition;  4.  fundamentals  of  law;  5.  science 
of  inheritance;  6.  syntax;  7.  grammar;  8.  art  of  writing;  9.  of  the  arrange- 
ment of  thoughts;  10.  figures  of  speech;  u.  expression  of  thought;  12.  anato- 
my; 13.  therapeutics;  14.  mysticism.     Cf.  Hammer,  Emyklopddie  der  ffissen- 
sehaft  des  Orients,   1804;  id.  in   the  Denkschriften  der  Kaiser/.  Akademie  der 
Wisscnschaften,  1856,  pp.  205  ff. 

2  Haneberg,  Das  Schul-  und  Lehrwesen  der  Mohammedaner  im  Mittelaltttr, 
Munich,  1850,  p.  10. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  22.     The  Moslem  fondness  for  educational  travel  has  been  well 
expressed  by  Riickert  in  the  following  lines,  which  are  modeled  after  Abu  Seid: 
"On  travels  I  started,  from  home  I  departed,  through  many  lands  darted, 
deep  learning  my  quest;  and  fleet  steeds  bestriding,  through  rivers  now  riding, 


THE   CONTENT   OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  23! 

knowledge  was  not  confined  to  the  learned.  A  due  distinction 
was  made  between  the  savant  (aalim,  plur.  u/ema),  who  special- 
ized in  one  subject,  and  the  educated  man  (ediby  plur.  udebd}^ 
who  occupied  himself  with  several  sciences  without  specializing 
in  any  subject.  He  who  was  "content  with  the  science  of  religion 
and  with  the  rudiments  of  secular  knowledge,"1  was  classed  with 
those  who  had  only  a  common  education. 

The  Christian  peoples  of  the  West  first  learned  mathematics 
and  medicine  from  the  Moslem  and  only  through  their  trans- 
lations did  they  become  acquainted  with  the  Greek  sources: 
Ptolemy,  Euclid,  Galen1,  and  Hippocrates.  The  many  technical 
terms,  particularly  in  chemistry  and  astronomy,  that  were  bor- 
rowed from  the  Arabians,  or  formed  after  Arabic  words,  and  of 
which  many  are  still  in  general  use,  evidence  the  deep  influence 
of  Arabian  learning.2  Philosophy  is  indebted  to  the  Arabians, 
not  only  for  their  commentaries  on  Aristotle,  but  also  for  certain 
works  of  this  philosopher,  especially  for  his  treatises  on  meta- 
physics and  physics.  These  new  accessions  were  certainly  re- 
sponsible for  much  of  the  progress  made  in  Scholastic  philoso- 
phy— yes,  the  fondness  o'f  the  Schoolmen  for  disputations  may 
perhaps  be  traced  to  Semitic  influences.  The  Arabic  encyclo- 

now  oceans  dividing,  observing  with  zest;  I  took  no  account  of  desert  or  mount, 
but  to  drink  at  the  fount,  'stead  at  streamlets  to  rest."  "Since  childhood's 
amulets  I  first  unbound,  and  round  my  head  the  manly  turban  wound,  I  longed 
for  education;  I  sought  it  with  firm  determination,  'mong  every  people  and 
every  nation,  that  it  might  be  to  me  adornment  before  the  crowd,  against  the 
noon-day  sun  a  shading  cloud.  So  desirous  was  I  to  roam  upon  its  pasture 
and  to  don  its  flowing  vesture,  that  I  asked  of  high  and  low,  and  asked  of 
friend  and  foe,  where  its  sweet  traces  I  might  find,  where  'twould  dispense  its 
blessings  kind,  in  drops  or  streams,  to  my  mind." 

1  Hammer,  Dcnkschriflen,  1.  c.,  p.  215. 

2  Ptolemy's  work  on  astronomy  was  known  in  the  Middle  Ages  under  the 
title  of  Almagest,  from  M«T^T'?  (sc.  ^x"*?)  and  the  Arabic  article.     Arithmetic 
was  called  Algorismus^  derived   from  the  name  of  Alchwarismi,  an  Arabian 
mathematician  of  the  gth  century,  whose  book  Al-jebr  w1 ' almuqabaUih,  i.  «?., 
reduction   and  comparison    (by  equations),   hus  given   algebra  its  name.   Cf. 
Cantor,  Vorlesungen  iiber  die  Gsschichte  der  Mathematik,  1,  p.  611.     Algebra 
was  also  called  "rule  of  coss,"  or  simply  "coss,"  from  the  Italian  term  for 
algebra:  regola  della  cosa  (rule  of  the  thing,  the  unknown  quantity  being  called 
the    cosa,    or    the    thing).     The  name  of  alchemy  reveals  its  Egyptian  origin 
(chemi,  Ham)  and  its  having  passed  through  Arabian  hands.     Our  astronomy 
still  employs  the  terms:  zenith,  nadir,  azimut;  and  traces  of  Arabic  words  can 
be  seen  in  many  names  of  stars.     In  chemistry  we  have:  alkali,  alcohol,  etc.; 
and  commerce  and  navigation  reveal  a  similar  indebtedness:  magazine,  arsenal, 
admiral,  calibre,  besides  many  names  of  articles  of  trade.     Neither  was  super, 
stition  denied  its  share;  witness  elixir,  talisman,  amulet,  etc. 


232  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

pedias  were  drawn  upon  by  later  encyclopedists;  Avicenna's 
Pearls  was  translated  in  the  i6th  century  and  published  under 
the  title,  Liber  de  divisione  scientiarum. 

A  strange  fate  thus  made  Moslem  education  serve  as  the 
bond  between  the  education  of  Greece  and  that  of  Western 
Christianity.  A  further  function;  of  Moslem  education  was  to 
stimulate  Christian  science.  But  the  germs  for  producing  last- 
ing and  far-reaching  creations  were  lacking  in  Mohammedanism1. 
Certain  writers  have  extravagantly  lauded  Mohammedanism  for 
allowing  the  various  sciences  to  develop  freely,  whereas  with 
the  Christian  religion  the  teachings  of  science  may  never  con- 
flict with  theology.  Nay,  to  judge  from  sayings  ascribed  to 
Mohammed,  science  ranked  superior  to  faith:  "The  ink  flowing 
from  the  scholars'  pens  is  more  precious  than  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrs shed  in  the  service  of  God;"  and  again:  "One  hour's  re- 
flection is  better  than  the  piety  of  sixty  years."  But  this 
esteem  of  learning  is  hardly  the  fruit  of  an  enlightened  policy 
of  toleration;  it  is  the  result  rather  of  the  meagre  content  of 
Mohammedan  faith  which,  being  unable  to  furnish  sufficient 
material  to  the  awakening  mind,  was  forced  to  accept  whatever 
was  offered  by  the  profane  sciences.  The  theology  and  phi- 
losophy of  the  Koran,  being  based  on  a  syncretism,  were  not 
apt  to  be  deepened  by  the  influences  of  ancient  philosophy,  and 
there  was  never  any  intimate  relationship  between  the  theo- 
logical system  of  the  Koran  and  the  work  of  the  thinkers  and 
scholars;  but  pantheistic  and  sensualistic  systems  flourished 
alongside  of  the  dei&m  of  the  dominant  religion.  Such  con- 
ditions, it  is  true,  assured  rapid  progress  and  unrestricted  lib- 
erty. Yet  the  principles  of  Christianity  are  possessed  of  greater 
power  and  a  greater  content,  and  hence  their  application  to  the 
sciences  must  eventually,  even  if  after  a  longer  time  and  more 
labor,  result  in  correspondingly  greater  gains. 

9.  The  studies  comprised  in,  and  connected  with,  the  system 
of  the  seven  liberal  arts  were  not  the  only  educational  elements 
available  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  system  of  chivalrous  edu- 
cation demonstrated  that  the  national  and  modern  elements 
were  important  enough  to  serve  as  the  materials  for  a  new  form 
of  mental  culture.  The  Church,  entrusted  with  the  education 
of  the  new  peoples,  had  to  force  into  the  background  their 
national  traditions  so  long  as  these  abetted  the  errors  of  pagan- 

1  Erdmann,  1.  c.,  I,  181. 

2  Hammer,  1.  c.,  p.  215  and  p.  211, 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  233 

ism;  but  this  danger  past,  the  Church  tolerated  and  even  con- 
served the  traditions.  It  was  the  priests  who  carried  out  the 
order  of  Charlemagne  to  collect  the  songs  about  the  ancient 
heroes,  and  it  was  a  bishop  who  had  a  copy  made  of  the  tales 
of  the  Nibelungs.  In  the  monastic  schools  national  tales  and 
legends  were  occasionally  assigned  as  themes  of  Latin  compo- 
sitions; and  in  the  same  schools  the  gospel  was  put  into  a  popu- 
lar form.  In  the  legends  Christian  and  national  elements  were 
blended.  The  tales  of  classical  antiquity  were  introduced  through 
the  schools  into  the  folklore  of  the  nation.  The  East  contrib- 
uted the  tales  of  wonder,  fables,  and  moral  stories  from  India. 
Here  we  have  the  source  of  that  wealth  of  stories,  tales,  fables, 
legends,  etc.,  that  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  from  one  coun- 
try to  another,  from  one  generation  to  the  next,  and  which 
represented  a  most  valuable  asset  of  society  and  rich  mental 
food  for  those  classes  that  did  not  enjoy  the  benefits  of  a  higher 
education.  From  this  source  the  chivalrous  poetry  of  the  age 
drew  what  was  kindred  to  its  ideals;  to  it  -the  Meistersinger  and 
the  didactic  poets  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  went  for  their  ma- 
terials; and  much  of  it  was  still  in  circulation  in  the  form  of 
popular  books  in  the  i6th  and  iyth  centuries.  But  precious 
little  has  been  transmitted  to  our  own  d^ay,  and  most  of  this 
had  to  be  unearthed  by  scientific  research;  yet  even  this  little 
constitutes  what  is  best  in  our  modern  readers  and  books  for 
the  young.  The  great  value  of  this  epic  and  didactic  literature  for 
the  Middle  Ages  was  realized  only  in  the  i6th  century,  when 
it  was  seen  that  the  store  was  becoming  exhausted.  "O  how 
many  are  the  fine  tales  and  sayings,"  says  Luther  in  his  Ad- 
dress to  the  City  Council,  "that  we  are  now  in  need  of,  and  which, 
once  current  in  all  Germany,  are  now  lost,  because  no  one  pre- 
served them  when  written,  or  noted  down  what  was  not  yet 
written."  These  "fine  tales  and  sayings"  were  an  intellectual 
treasure  of  the  Middle  Ages,  though  they  are  easily  undervalued 
because  they  were  not  directly  connected  with  the  schools  of 
the  time.  A  later  age  has  undertaken  to  replace  them  by  creat- 
ing, with  the  aid  of  schools  and  scholars,  a  popular  literature. 
But  this  attempt,  though  praiseworthy,  lacks  the  originality, 
the  freshness,  and  fullness  of  medieval  folklore. 


234  MEDIEVAL    EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  XX. 
The  Ethos  of  Medieval  Education. 

i.  Religion  occupies  the  central  place  in  the  soul-life  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  also  determines  the  spirit  and  tendency  of 
medieval  education.  Studies,  science,  knowledge,  intellectual 
development,  are  not  valued  for  their  own  sake,  but  as  means 
for  attaining  Christian  perfection.  "All  human  activity  must, 
to  be  deemed  wise,  aim  to  restore  the  primitive  purity  and 
perfection  of  our  nature,  or  to  alleviate  some  of  the  sufferings 
of  our  present  life.  .  .  .  The  right  teaching  will  restore  what 
we  have  lost,  and  hence  the  pursuit  of  wisdom  is  apt  to  be  the 
sweetest  solace  of  life;  he  who  finds  wisdom,  shall  be  called 
happy;  and  he  that  possesses  wisdom,  is  blessed."  The  work 
of  learning  is  long  and  serious,  and  the  precious  years  of  early 
youth  must  therefore  be  spent  in  acquiring  knowledge:  "The 
days  of  man  are  few  and  short,  but  eternity  is  at  stake;  we 
are  destined  for  great  things,  but  surrounded  by  untold  dangers; 
we  are  far  from  the  goal,  and  our  progress  is  slow:  why  should 
we  not,  then,  start  out  in  the  morning  of  life  on  the  road  to 
paradise?"  The  aim  of  our  studies  should  be  pure  and  sub- 
lime, and  free  from  base  motives:  "Some  study  merely  to  know, 
which  is  contemptible  curiosity;  others  study  to  become  famous 
for  their  knowledge:  they  are  vain  and  conceited,  and  to  them 
may  be  applied  the  words  of  the  satirist,  'Thy  knowledge  is 
nothing  to  thee  if  others  do  not  know  that  thou  knowest  it.' 
Others  study  to  obtain  by  their  knowledge  wealth  and  high 
places,  and  this  is  miserly  covetousness.  But  there  are  some 
who  study  to  edify  their  neighbor,  and  this  is  Christian  charity; 
while  they  who  study  for  their  own  edification,  are  truly  wise. 
Only  the  last  two  classes  of  students  do  not  abuse  learning,  for 
their  studies  tend  to  righteousness."  The  conditions  favorable 
to  peace  of  soul  also  make  for  success  in  studies:  /.  e.y  humility, 
spirit  of  research,  quiet  life,  silent  examination,  poverty,  living 
abroad.4 

1  Hugo  a  Sto.  Victore,  Erud.  did.,  I,  2. 
*  Vine.  Bell.,  De  erud.fil.  re*.,  cap.  24. 

3  Bern.  Claravall.  quoted  in  Vincent.,  I,  i,  cap.  13;  cf.  Hugo,  I,  i,  III,  15 
and  J.  J.  Becher,  Melhodus  didactica,  Munich,  1668,  preface. 

4  Bernard  of  Chartres  says:    Mens  humilis,  studium  qucerendi,    vita  quieta, 
scrutinium  taciturn,  paupcrtas,  terra  flliena:  hac  rfserare  svlcnt  mullis  ofacura 


THE  ETHOS  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  235 

The  right  education  and  its  application  in  later  life  are  con- 
ceived as  divine  service.  "Those  pupils  undoubtedly,"  says 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  "that  lead  a  pure  life  and  are  happy 
in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  bear  witness  to  the  Faith,  and 
their  heavenly  reward  will  be  exceeding  great,  if  they  turn  to 
good  account,  in  the  service  either  of  their  fellowmen  or,  better 
still,  of  their  God,  whatever  they  learned  in  the  schools. "  The 
ethico-religious  purpose  of  learning  forbids  the  student  to  at- 
tempt what  is  beyond  his  powers,  or  to  waste  his  energies  on  a 
variety  of  subjects.  "There  are  men,"  says  Hugh  of  St.  Victor, 
"who  would  read  and  know  everything,  but  of  the  number  of 
books  there  is  no  end;  therefore,  be  thou  wise,  and  do  not  pre- 
sume to  cover  what  is  infinite,  for  where  there  is  no  end  there 
is  no  rest  and  hence  neither  peace;  and  where  there  is  no  true 
peace  there  God  can  not  dwell,  for  God  dwells  in  a  house  of 
peace."  "The  great  number  of  things  and  the  shortness  of. 
human  life,"  to  quote  St.  Bernard,  "will  not  allow  us  to  en- 
compass all;  he  who  would  command  too  large  a  field  of  knowl- 
edge, will  go  astray,  he  will  make  no  progress,  and  will  know 
nothing  thoroughly;  for  the  mind,  when  attending  to  many 
different  subjects,  can  not  fathom  the  details  of  any  individual 
matter."2  These  dangers,  however,  of  a  shiftless  browsing  among 
the  sciences  did  not  blind  these  men  to  the  obvious  advantages 
of  general  knowledge.  Hugh  of  St.  Victor  says  of  his  own 
studies:  "I  can  assure  you  that  I  have  not  slighted  anything 
pertaining  to  erudition  (quod  ad  eruditionem  pertineref],  but  have 
often  studied  many  subjects  which  appeared  in  the  eyes  of  others 
ridiculous  and  useless."  And  he  lays  down  the  rule,  "Study  all, 
and  thou  shalt  later  see  that  nothing  is  superfluous;  knowledge, 
if  narrowly  confined,  is  not  attractive  (coarctata  scientia  jucunda 
non  esi)."* 

The  religious  attitude  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  one  of  deep 
reverence  for  the  content  of  Faith,  and  with  the  then  importance 
of  religion  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  kindred  reverence  was 
shown  to  all  learning  and  its  representatives.  "The  pupil  must 
believe  his  teacher  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  sciences,  but  must 
follow  especially  them  who  are  the  pioneers  in  a  science,  or 
who  have  treated  it  with  the  greatest  knowledge  or  eloquence, 
/.  <?.,  Priscian  in  grammar,  Aristotle  in  logic,  and  Hippocrates 
in  medicine."  As  each  vocation  had  its  own  patron,  so  each 

1  Quoted  in  Vincent,  I,  i,  cap.  13.  2  Quoted  ibid. 

3  Hugo,  Enid,  did.,  VI,  3.  4  Vincent,  Spec,  doct.,  I. 


236  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

science,  too,  was  assigned  to  an  ancient  sage  as  to  a  procurator.1 
The  instruction  was  controlled  by  the  recognized  textbooks,  and 
consisted  chiefly  in  explaining  the  standard  texts.  But  the 
writings  of  the  great  masters,  the  first  sources,  were  rarely  used 
as  texts.  Instead,  the  textbooks  quoted  only  extracts  from 
these  sources,  and  the  greatest  authority,  though  unmerited, 
was  enjoyed  by  the  schoolbooks  written  towards  the  end  of  the 
Roman  period.  Cicero  was  declared  the  prince  of  orators,  but 
instead  of  reading  his  orations,  the  schools  used  Marcianus 
Capella's  Rhetoric,  which  was  based  on  them.  The  Middle  Ages 
professed  to  be  disciples  of  Aristotle,  but  of  his  works  they  had 
for  a  long  time  only  extracts,  garbled  at  that,  from  his  Organon. 
Attempts  were  made  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  to  remedy  these 
defects,  but  the  numberless  compendia  produced  in  consequence 
—the  Sententifgj  Summce,  Catena  aurece^  and  the  like— rendered 
the  original  sources  more  inaccessible  than  ever.  Once  a  doc- 
trine had  been  admitted  to  one  textbook,  it  was  certain  to  make 
the  rounds  of  all  books  written  on  the  subject,  and  it  was  gen- 
erally copied  without  any  reference  to  author  or  source.  Hence 
the  -naive  plagiarisms  which  confront  us  on  all  sides  in  the  text- 
books of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  also  the  gullibility  with  regard 
to  the  wildest  of  fables  and  grossest  of  errors,  though  the  latter 
might  readily  have  been  detected  by  merely  consulting  the 
current  authorities  of  the  ancients.  These  glaring  defects  the 
Humanists  later  made  the  butts  of  their  attacks  on  the  period, 
and  pointed  to  them  as  proofs  for  the  barbarity  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

Though  teaching  was  in  actual  practice  conceived  as  the 
process  primarily  of  imparting  knowledge— the  chief  function  of 
learning  being  to  receive  this  knowledge— yet  this  view  was 
corrected,  at  least  in  theory,  by  the  teaching  of  the  philosophers. 
The  Schoolmen  treated  pedagogy  mostly  in  connection  with 
St.  Augustine's  De  magistro^  where  the  Saint  lays  down  the 
principle  that  teaching  in  its  full  meaning  can  be  ascribed  to 
God  alone.  St.  Thomas  takes  up  the  subject  in  his  Qucestio  de 

1  The  title-page  of  the  Strassburg  edition  (1512)  of  the  Margaritha  philo- 
sophica  presents  the  picture  of  a  tower-like  structure,  in  the  first  story  of  which 
Donat  and  Priscian  are  teaching,  while  the  following  are  looking  from  the 
windows  of  the  higher  stories:  Aristotle,  the  representative  of  logic;  Cicero, 
of  rhetoric  and  poetics;  Boethius,  of  arithmetic;  Pythagoras,  of  music;  Euclid, 
of  geometry;  Ptolemy,  of  astronomy;  Seneca,  of  morals;  Aristotle  (the  philo- 
sophus],  of  physics.  The  highest  point  is  occupied  by  Peter  the  Lombard, 
the  representative  of  Theologia  seu  Metaphysica.  Cf.  McCormick,  1.  c.,  p.  128. 


THE   ETHOS   OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  237 

magistro,  the  eleventh  in  his  book  De  veritate,  and  arrives  at  the 
conclusion  that  man  can  teach  by  exerting  an  external  influence 
on  the  mind,  just  as  the  physician  cures  the  511  body  by  calling 
into  play  the  forces  of  nature.  St.  Thomas  observes  that  with 
both  teacher  and  physician  success  depends  on  imitating  the 
ways  of  nature.  Thus  the  self-activity  of  the  pupil  is  declared 
to  be  just  as  important  as  the  teacher's  work;  and  the  imitation 
of  nature,  which  was  later  demanded  so  insistently,  was  even 
then  laid  down  as  a  law.1 

2.  As  the  content  of  teaching  was  an  object  of  reverence,  so 
the  teacher  also  was  held  in  personal  esteem.  It  was  the  grati- 
tude of  his  pupils  that  obtained  for  the  learned  Bede  the  sur- 
name Venerabilis;  and  Alcuin,  Rhabanus,  and  others  were  re- 
garded by  their  pupils  with  filial  reverence.  When  Lanfranc 
called  on  Pope  Alexander  II.,  his  sometime  pupil,  the  Pope 
arose  and  greeted  him  saying,  Assurgo  tibi  tanquam  magistro  et 
deosculor  tanquam  pcedagogum.  Most  pleasant  relations  ex- 
isted between  Bernard  of  Chartres  and  his  pupils,  as  may  "be 
seen  from  the  Metalogicus  in  which  John  of  Salisbury  .extols  the 
Senex  Carnotensis. 

This  attitude  of  the  pupils  towards  their  teachers  was 'apt 
to  render  less  arduous  the  work  of  the  school  and  to  soften 
somewhat  the  rigor  of  medieval  discipline.  The  retaining  of 
the  ancient  traditions  amid  totally  different  conditions  rendered 
the  work  of  learning  doubly  difficult.  The  Latin  grammar, 
written  originally  for  Roman  boys,  but  now  strange  to  the 
pupil  in  both  matter  and  form,  had  to  be  learned  first.  Each 
subject  demanded  a  vast  amount  of  memorizing.  The  subtleties 
of  dialectic,  which  retained  its  traditional  place  among  the 
elementary  studies,  were  the  mental  food  for  the  growing  boy. 
The  spirit  of  mortification  and  penance  that  inspired  the  teachers 
of  the  older  monastic  schools,  prevented  them  from  making 
proper  allowances  for  the  weakness  of  the  young;  and  in  the 
secular  schools  the  teacher  was  never  in  a  position  to  assist  the 
individual  pupil.  It  sounds  desperate  to  hear  Thomas  Platter 
relate  how  he  cowered  in  a  corner  of  the  schoolroom  and  said 
to  himself,  "Here  must  thou  learn  or  die."  This  is,  however,, 
but  one  side  of  the  picture,  for  there  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
the  medieval  schools  did  not  lack  their  attractive  features,  and 
the  rod  was  not  in  absolute  power.  Lceti  tirones,  Iceti  magistri^ 

1  Cf.  E.  A.  Pace,  St.  Thomas'  Theory  of  Education,  in  Catholic  University  Bul- 
letin, July,  1902. 


23$  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION. 

latissimus  rector •,  was  said  of  Rhabanus'  school.  In  the  I2th 
century  Alexander  of  Neckam  confesses  that  the  happiest  years 
of  his  life  were  spent  in  the  monastic  school  of  St.  Albans.1 
Hugh  of  St.  Victor  has  left  us  a  charming  description  of  the 
joys  he  experienced  in  the  solitude  of  his  cell  in  following  the 
tangled  paths  of  learning.2  The  mnemonic  verses,  abounding 
in  the  textbooks  of  the  Scholastic  period,  are  a  signal  proof  for 
the  pains  taken  to  lighten  the  pupils'  tasks;  and  aids  to  the 
vizualization  of  different  subjects  were  also  employed:  in  his 
school  at  Paris  the  Cantor  Peter  illustrated  the  history  of  the 
Old  Testament  with  genealogical  trees.3  Neither  was  a  state  of 
passivity  general  with  the  pupils:  the  Scholastic  determination 
(/'.  £.,  definition),  disputation,  and  recitation  surely  necessitated 
a  large  amount  of  self-activity  on  the  part  of  the  pupil.4  It  is 
a  well-known  fact  that  the  beautiful  school  feasts  of  the  Middle 
Ages  gave  full  scope  to  the  joys  and  pleasures  of  the  young. 

3.  There  might  seem  to  be  but  little  kinship  between  the 
cumbersome  education  demanded  of  the  savant  and  the  pleasant 
course  of  training  outlined  for  the  aspirant  to  knighthood.  The 
savaat's  training  has  in  it.  much  that  is  reminiscent  of  the  hard 
and  fast  rules  of  Eastern  education,  while  chivalrous  education 
conforms  in  many  points  to  the  paideia  of  the  Greeks.  The 
knightly  vrumecheit  has  in  it  something  akin  to  the  Hellenic 
KaXoyadia:  the  tournament  supersedes  the  gymnastics  of  the 
Greeks;  the  harp,  songs,  and  tales  took  the  place  of  several 
elements  of  ancient  liberal  education;  the  heroes  of  Homer,  the 
ideals  of  the  Greek  youth,  have  their  counterpart  in  the  heroes 
of  chivalry  and  knight-errantry,  whose  deeds  are  celebrated  in 
the  medieval  epics.  The  knight  realizes  many  of  the  cultural 
ideals  of  the  ancients:  his  is  a  manly  consciousness  of  strength; 
his  personality,  versatile  and  finished,  combines  knowledge  and 
skill  in  beautiful  harmony;  and  his  noble  feats  of  strength  and 
hardihood  are  a  fit  preparation  for  the  trying  duties  of  life. 
Yet  upon  closer  view,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  education  of  the 
knight  was,  nevertheless,  wholly  and  fully  medieval.  For  here, 
too,  religion  was  the  final  aim:  the  page  must  become  a  warrior 

1  In  the  following  verses:    Hie   locus  cetatis  nostree  primordia  novit  Annas 
felicesy  Icstiticeque  dies!     Hie  locus  ingenuis  pueriles  imtuit  annos  Artibus,  et 

nostree  laudis  origo  fuit.     Hie  artes  didici  docuiquc  fideiiter;    quoted  in  Hurter, 
Leben  des  Papstes  Innocenz  ///.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  574. 

2  De  erud.  did.,  VI,  3. 

3  Hurter,  I.  c.,  IV,  p.  552. 

4  Huber,  The  English  Universities,  London,  j  843,  I,  p.  35. 


THE  ETHOS  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.  239 

of  Christ;  he  is  dubbed  a  knight  "for  God's  and  Mary's  glory;" 
he  is  trained  for  the  service,  not  only  of  his  King,  but  also  of 
Mother  Church;  and  his  fondest  dreams  are  realized  when  he 
journeys  to  the  Holy  Land  in  company  with  his  fellows  in  arms. 
There  is  one  ancient  institution  that  is  really  kin  of  nature  to 
medieval  knighthood:  the  warriors  in  Plato's  Re-public •,  appointed 
to  defend  the  community,  who  watch  over  the  welfare  of  the 
State,  while  the  intellectual  treasures  are  committed  to  the  care 
of  the  governors,  whose  life  is  devoted  to  contemplating  the 
eternal  verities.  The  severity  of  chivalrous  education  is  like- 
wise more  reminiscent  of  Plato's  regulations  than  of  the  general 
education  of  Greece.  The  younker  was  not  spared  the  bitter- 
ness of  hard  study;  he  was  obliged,  according  to  Gottfried's 
Tristan  und  Isolde,  "to  journey  to  foreign  and  distant  lands  to 
learn  foreign  tongues;  of  all  learning  he  was  to  give  chief  at- 
tention to  booklore,  and  many  days  and  many  nights  must  he 
devote  to  his  books  and  travels. "  Chivalrous  education,  then, 
does  not  lack  the  seriousness  of  the  Christian  ideals,  and  if 
inferior,  on  its  aesthetic  side,  to  Greek  culture,  it  is  immeasurably 
superior  in  moral  worth. 

The  charge  has  been  brought  against  the  Middle  Ages  'that 
the  attention  to  the  things  of  the  next  world  prevented  the 
"humanization  and  the  harmonious  development  of  the  things 
of  this  world,"  and  that  the  "one-sided  spiritualism"  made  it 
impossible  to  interpret  the  ancients,  to  commune  with  nature, 
and  to  estimate  aright  the  human  powers.  But  while  conceding 
these  charges  to  be,  to  some  extent,  not  unfounded,  we  may  not 
close  our  eyes  to  the  obvious  advantages  accruing  to  the  Middle 
Ages  from  their  deep  and  strong  faith  in  eternity  and  their  pure 
and  lofty  spirituality  of  aim.  While  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  the  above  complaints  be  at  all  in  place,  the  fair-minded 
student  of  history  will  acknowledge  that  they  can  be  reduced 
to  the  lament  over  the  limitations  imposed  on  the  soul-life  of 
man.  If  men  would  cover  new  ground  and  assimilate  new 
ideas,  they  must  perforce  render  up  much  of  what  they  had 
hitherto  prized.  How  narrow  and  how  confined  is  the  ken 
allowed  to  the  human  eye:  when  we  direct  our  gaze  heavenward 
and  contemplate  its  glories,  we  are  apt  to  let  the  earth  escape 
our  attention,  and  thus  an  extension  of  the  field  of  human  in- 
terests, any  gain  in  knowledge,  is  accompanied  with  loss;  in- 
tensive application  in  one  field  implies  a  corresponding  loss  in 
other  fields. 


VII. 
THE  RENAISSANCE. 

CHAPTER  XXL 

General  View  of  Renaissance  Education. 

i.  The  intellectual  life  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  never  out  of 
touch  with  antiquity:  the  philosophy  of  the  Schoolmen  was 
based  on  Aristotle;  the  encyclopedias,  on  Roman  compilations; 
all  schooling,  on  the  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts  and  on  the 
reading  and  interpretation  of  a  limited  number  of  the  ancient 
classics;  finally,  Latin  had  remained  the  language  of  scholarship 
and  the  basis  of  all  higher  learning.  Hence  the  revival  of  clas- 
sical studies  at  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages  does  not  imply  the 
rediscovery  of  something  that  had  been  lost,  for  the  Renaissance 
did  not  take  up  a  new  subject  of  study,  but  only  assumed  a  new 
attitude  towards  what  had  been  for  centuries  the  content  of 
education.  The  Middle  Ages  had  looked  upon  the  intellectual 
treasures  handed  down  from  the  ancient  world  as  a  precious 
inheritance  and  as  indispensable  for  serious  mental  work.  But 
despite  this  high  esteem  for  the  rich  legacy,  they  rightly  made 
it  serve  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  time.  They  considered  the 
writings  of  the  ancients  the  standards  of  secular  learning,  the 
repository  of  immense  erudition,  and  the  starting-point  for  any 
further  advance  in  secular  science,  so  that  they  regarded  pro- 
gress in  profane  learning  as  only  a  continuation  of  ancient  liter- 
ature, specifically  of  Roman  literature..  Consequently,  Roman 
literature  was  not  regarded  as  a  monument  of  a  past  age,  just 
as  the  Latin  language  was  not  considered  dead  and  the  Roman 
Empire  not  of  the  past. 

The  Renaissance,  however,  abandoned  this  (one  may  say) 
naive  view,  for  it  realized  that  the  writings  of  the  ancients — 
especially  the  poets,  orators,  and  historians,  whom  the  Middle 
Ages  had  conceived  as  mere  adjuncts  of  the  artes — that  these 
voiced  the  splendid  and  peculiar  humanity  of  a  departed  age. 
In  the  ancient  classics  the  Renaissance  discovered  a  world 
peopled  with  men  of  striking  and  sublime  individuality.  It 
there  beheld  a  fabric,  many-hued  and  diverse  in  texture,  which 

240 


GENERAL   VIEW   OF    RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.  24! 

was  indeed  to  be  an  object  of  marvel  and  study,  but  which  was 
finished,  and  which  would  consequently  not  admit  of  any  ad- 
ditional weaving  at  the  hands  of  after  ages.  In  the  old  books 
it  heard  the  living  speech  coming  from  the  lips  of  the  men  of  a 
bygone  age  and  addressed  to  living  men  of  like  feelings,  thus 
making  possible  an  ideal  intercommunion  between  the  present 
and  the  past.  The  ancient  world  was  thus  viewed  in  the  proper 
perspective  as  belonging  historically  to  the  past,  but  as  exerting 
with  its  broad  humanity  an  unbroken  and  universal  influence 
on  the  living  present;  and  the  ancient  languages  were  declared 
to  be  dead,  but  as  being  classical  they  were  recognized  as  im- 
mortal. 

The  age  that  assumed  this  attitude  towards  the  ancient 
world  may  well  be  designated  as  the  Humanistic  age;  and  its 
general  tendency  may  be  called  the  spirit  of  Humanism.  But 
in  calling  it  the  Humanistic  age  we  do  not  imply  that  the  Middle 
Ages  had  known  naught  of  human  nature,  had  not  had  a  deep 
and  comprehensive  view  of  the  human  spirit,  had  not  felt  truly 
the  impulses  of  the  common  nature  of  the  race.  What  we  will 
say  is  that  in  this  new  age  men  passed  from  books  and  through 
books  to  human  nature,  found  food  in  books  for  human  feelings 
and  human  interests,  perceived  and  bridged  over  the  gulf  that 
separated  the  ancient  world  from  the  present,  and  learned  to 
appreciate  the  clear  and  broad  views  and  the  noble  and  graceful 
forms  of  the  humanity  of  classical  antiquity.  But  educational 
writers  and  historians  of  education  have  so  much  misused  this 
term  "Humanism"  that 'it  will  no  longer  embrace  the  system 
of  education  that  resulted  from  the  general  acceptance  of  the 
new  world-view.  The  term  is,  moreover,  used  for  the  chief 
educational  principle  that  governed  the  culture  of  the  I5th  and 
1 6th  centuries  in  contrast  to  the  realism  of  the  iyth  century, 
and  as  this  usage  refers  rather  to  one  pedagogical  concept  than 
to  the  broad  field  of  education,  "Humanism"  can  no  longer 
designate  (what  must  be  considered  here)  the  sum-total  of 
historical  influences  at  work  during  the  period.  Hence  we  find 
it  expedient  to  borrow  from  the  history  of  art  the  term  Renais- 
sance which,  though  likewise  open  to  some  misinterpretation,  is 
happily  free  from  the  misconception  just  noted.  We  are  justi- 
fied in  thus  borrowing  this  term  for  our  broad  subject,  for  in 
general  usage  Renaissance  is  being  used  more  and  more  for  the 
broad  field  of  intellectual  life.  In  art-history  the  Renaissance 
is  the  movement  that  owed  its  inception  to  the  study  of  ancient 

16 


242  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

models,   and  which   followed  consistently   the  conceptions   and 
ideals  of  the  ancients.     It  originated  in  Italy  in  the  I5th  cen- 
tury, attained  its  highest  development  in  the  i6th,  and  finally 
died  out  in  the  iyth  century,  after  degenerating  into  the  corrupt 
taste  and  style  of  the  Rococo.     The  history  of  education  also 
needs  a  term  to  embrace  the  work  of  about  three  centuries, 
when  men  were  engaged  in  engrafting  the  ideals  and  the  spirit 
of  ancient  culture  upon  the  schools  of  modern  Europe.     This 
movement  in  education  also  proceeded  from  Italy,  achieved  its 
greatest  successes  in  the  i6th  century,  but  was  still  a  power  in 
the  polymathy  of  the  iyth  century.     We  must,  however,  note 
that  a  revival  in  art  as  well  as  in  education  occurred  only  in  a 
limited  degree.     The  arts  had  never  died  (witness  the  Roman- 
esque and  Gothic  cathedrals  which  challenge  comparison  with 
the  world's  most  splendid  creations);  neither  had    science  and 
learning  passed  from  the  earth:  they  had  found  a  sheltering 
home  in  the  medieval  universities;  and  it  is  only  the  narrow 
view  of  the   transitional   and   revolutionary  period   that  could 
ignore   the   achievements   of  medieval   scholarship.     Yet   there 
was  withal  a  revival,  inasmuch  as  many  elements  which  had  till 
then  been  active  only  in  a  restricted  and  an  indirect  way,  were 
now  given  full  sway.     A  new  principle  was  introduced  into  the 
intellectual  world,  and  this  new  principle  determined  the  ideas 
and  the  world-view  of  the  period.     There  was  a  revival  also  in 
education  inasmuch  as  the  schools  were  enriched  by  the  intro- 
duction of  tendencies,  forms,  and  materials  of  ancient  education, 
and  stimulated  by  the  wholesome  influences  proceeding  from 
other   fields   fructified   by   the   new   principles.     Still,  we   must 
confess  that  this  revival  and  the  new  intellectual  life  occasioned, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  death  of  many  older  tendencies;  nay, 
certain  classes  of  men,  overfond  of  the  novel,  broke  away  com- 
pletely   from    all    traditions.     These    evil    results    explain    why 
Graeco-Roman  antiquity  is  more  familiar  to  us  than  the  Chris- 
tian Middle  Ages,  and  why  a  second  Renaissance  was  needed 
in  the  I9th  century  to  re-connect,  for  the  purposes  of  historical 
research,  the  bonds  that  had  been  cut  in  twain.     The  study  of 
antiquity  had  sharpened  the  historical  sense  and   had  widened 
the  historical  horizon,  and  hence  the  modern  historians  could 
discover  the  relationship  between  the  new  and  the  inherited. 

i.  The  leaders  of  the  Renaissance  wished  to  engraft  the 
spirit  of  the  ancient  world  on  the  culture  of  the  I5th  and  i6th 
centuries,  but  while  antiquity  in  general  engaged  their  attention, 
the  Roman  concept  of  education  remained  the  highest  ideal  of 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.         243 

the  epoch.  Greek  had  in  the  Middle  Ages  received  but  scant 
attention,  even  in  higher  education.  Now,  however,  it  was 
added  to  the  curriculum,  and  in  a  few  cases  considered  even 
more  important  than  Latin.  Yet  the  latter  retained  its  place  of 
honor  as  the  foremost  cultural  subject,  and  the  Institutes  of 
Quintilian  remained  the  textbook  of  Renaissance  pedagogy.  The 
ideal  of  the  Renaissance  was  not  Greek  culture,  based  on  the 
liberal  arts  and  gymnastics  and  culminating  in  philosophy,  but 
Roman  eloquence,  which,  in  its  essence  of  a  purely  formal  char- 
acter, was  supplemented  by  general  erudition,  without,  however, 
being  internally  correlated  to  philosophy.  Keeping  this  in  mind, 
we  shall  better  understand  the  frequently  so  one-sided  view  of 
Renaissance  educators  concerning  the  importance  of  the  mas- 
tery of  language,  the  fari  posse,  which  was  both  the  capstone 
and  the  touchstone  of  education:  hence  the  drills  in  style,  the 
cult  of  Cicero  and  rhetoric,  and  the  feverish  activity  of  the 
Latinists.  To  acquire  a  Latin  style  was  considered  more  im- 
portant than  the  acquisition  of  positive  knowledge,  and  the 
content  of  the  classics  imported  less  than  the  ancients'  art  of 
language.  At  no  period  in  the  world's  history  did  the  art  of 
language  hold  so  high  a  place  in  education'as  in  the  Renaissance, 
and  in  the  worship  of  form  this  period  surpassed  even  the  Ro- 
mans, as  the  imitator  will  ever  tend  to  overdo  what  was  praise- 
worthy in  his  model.  The  Renaissance  revived  the  taste,  long 
dead,  for  the  most  spiritual  of  all  instruments  of  art  and  the 
most  sublime  of  all  objects  of  the  fine  arts;  and  lest  we  judge 
too  harshly  the  formal  tendency  of  the  Humanists,  we  should 
contrast  it  with  the  naturalism  of  the  medieval  scholars  who 
used  the  Latin  language  as  a  medium  of  expression,  without, 
however,  any  aesthetic  appreciation  of  its  power  and  without 
any  attention  to  its  artistic  form.  Though  the  reincarnation  of 
Cicero  and  Vergil  smacked  of  affectation,  and  though  the  virtu- 
osity of  the  poeta  laureati  could  not  conceal  the  inanity  of 
their  verses  (so  striking  if  compared  with  the  natural  virility  of 
the  singers  of  the  Age  of  Chivalry),  yet  the  study  of  the  organ- 
ism of  a  highly  developed  language  and  the  striving  to  master 
the  subtleties  of  its  technique  proved  a  disciplinary  course  in 
aesthetics  and  linguistics  whose  value  for  the  cultural  develop- 
ment of  modern  peoples  can  not  be  overestimated,  because  it 
trained  the  sense  for  language  and  form.  Still  it  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  cult  of  the  ancient  classics  blinded  men  to 
the  power  of  their  mother-tongue  and  to  the  glories  of  their 
national  literature,  and  that  it  resulted  in  the  tendency,  so 


244  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

strong  in  Renaissance  Germany,  to  ape  foreign  conditions  in- 
stead of  gradually  assimilating  the  Roman  civilization,  as  the 
Middle  Ages  had  done,  and  thereby  converting  it  into  an  ele- 
ment that  could  be  amalgamated  with  a  culture  that  was  na- 
tional in  its  general  composition. 

The  term  "Latinity,"  or  "eloquence,"  as  employed  by  the 
Renaissance,  was  very  comprehensive,  embracing  all  that  made 
for  the  aesthetic  improvement  of  the  mind  besides  much  of 
what  belonged  properly  to  moral  and  religious  education.  Hence 
Erasmus  boasted  of  his  Colloquia  that  they  had — though  it  is 
hardly  credible  —  made  boys  latiniores  et  me/tores,  and  John 
Sturmius  asserted  roundly  that  a  sapiens  atque  eloquens  pietas 
was  the  aim  of  his  school  instruction.  The  refinement  of  taste, 
resulting  from  the  study  of  the  classics,  was  expected  to  refine 
the  whole  man  and  thereby  prove  an  important  contribution  to 
the  civilitas  morum.  This  correlation  of  culture  with  moral 
training  revived  an  ideal  of  ancient  Rome,  when  education  was 
conceived  as  the  process  of  unlearning  rudeness  (erudire).  The 
harmony  of  noble  speech  was  declared  to  be  "understandable  of 
the  ear,  to  betoken  the  sweet  harmony  of  the  inner  man,  and 
to  be  more  intelligible  than  the  harmony  of  the  spheres,  which, 
though  never  heard  of  mortal  ear,  was  the  subject  of  a  Pytha- 
gorean doctrine."1  The  harmony  of  beautiful  language  was  fur- 
ther said  to  be  the  image  of  a  beautiful  humanity,  and  the 
sincere  and  persistent  striving  after  literary  excellence  was  al- 
leged to  make  men  morally  better. 

3.  The  Renaissance  had  borrowed  from  the  Romans,  not 
only  the  spirit  of  Humanism,  but  also  their  cosmopolitan  tend- 
ency. The  Renaissance  was  intent  on  assembling  "all  nations 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Muses,"  and  this  dream  is  remi- 
niscent of  the  world  empire  of  ancient  Rome.  The  proud  spirit 
of  old  Rome  rings  from  the  triumphant  cry  of  Laurentius  Valla, 
a  Roman  by  birth:  "We  have  lost  Rome,  but  by  the  splendid 
power  of  the  Latin  language  we  are  still  lords  of  a  great  part 
of  the  world;  Italy  is  ours,  Spain,  Germany,  Pannonia,  Dal- 
matia,  Illyria,  and  many  other  nations  bow  to  our  sway;  for 
the  might  of  Rome  extends  over  the  Latin-speaking  world."2 

1  Job.  Sturmius,  Nobilitas  literatn  in  H.  Grotii  et  aiiorum  dissenationes  de 
studiis  instituendis   (Amstel.,   1645,)   p.    166:   "Lingua  concinnitas,  quce  cum 
auribus  audientium  reprasentatur,  mentis  suavissimum  concentum  indicat,  qui 
magis  inteliigi  a  nobis  potest  quam  calestis  machinie  nunquam  audiia  tamen 
tradita  ohm  a  Pythagoricis  apvovia.  " 

2  K.  v.  Raumer,  Geschichte  der  Padagogik,  I,  p.  42. 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  RENAISSANCE    EDUCATION.  245 

The  European  family  of  nations  was  at  that  time  united  by  the 
bonds  of  a  common  Faith  as  well  as  by  the  ties  of  a  common 
ancestry:  Reuchlin  styled  the  Greeks  and  Romans  the  majores 
nostri.  The  Renaissance  witnessed  the  establishment  of  the 
"Republic  of  Letters,"  which  represented  the  union  of  all  the 
learned  and  cultured,  irrespective  of  their  nationality  or  social 
standing,  whereas  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  clergy  had  constituted 
the  centre  of  the  learned  world.  But  the  period  went  farther 
still  by  admitting  women  to  the  circles  of  the  learned;1  and  the 
elementary  schools  of  Latin,  being  open  to  all  comers,  assured 
a  steady  influx  to  the  same  circles  from  the  lower  strata  of 
society.  To  further  and  spread  the  new  learning  was  considered 
the  duty  of  the  race,  and  almost  equal  in  importance  to  the 
reform  of  the  Church.  Rudolph  von  Lange,  provost  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Miinster  (died  1519),  looked  forward  in  his  old  age 
to  the  realization  of  a  fond  hope:  "that  the  spirit  of  darkness 
might  pass  from  the  churches  and  schools,  and  that  her  pristine 
beauty  be  restored  to  the  Church  and  its  pristine  purity  to  the 
Latin  tongue."'  The  didactics  of  the  lyth  century  finally  de- 
clared the  school  to  be  the  organ  of  education,  whose  supervision 
was  a  legitimate  function  of  the  government  of  the  State. 

Besides  these  socio-ethical  motives  there  were  other  less 
altruistic  principles  at  work,  and  the  latter  were  traceable,  like 
the  former,  to  ancient  influences.  Chief  among  these  was  the 
ancient  desire  for  fame,  which  the  Renaissance  revived  after 
the  higher  ideals  of  Christianity  had  for  centuries  forced  it  into 
the  background.  This  ambition  is  especially  marked  in  the 
early  Italian  Humanists,  witness  their  leader  Petrarch;3  but  the 
entire  Neo-Latin  literature  breathes  the  same  spirit.  On  all 
sides  we  may  witness  the  striving  for  immortal  fame,  the  happi- 
ness in  being  praised,  and  the  ill-suppressed  jealousy  of  a  suc- 
cessful rival.  The  schools  likewise  followed  but  too  eagerly  the 
advice  of  Quintilian  to  lead  the  youth  through  ambition  to 
higher  things.  In  his  book  on  the  method  of  study  Joachim 
Fortius  (died  1536)  writes:  "To  be  satisfied  with  mediocrity  is, 
by  the  immortal  gods,  a  sign  of  a  low,  cowardly,  and  even  de- 
praved soul;  but  how  noble  is  the  soul  of  him  who  conquers  the 

1  Mary  A.  Cannon,  Education  of  Women  during  the  Renaissance,  Washing- 
ton, 1916. 

2  Raumer,  I.e.,  I,  p.  92:  "  Ut  tenebrce  ex  ecclesiis  et  scholis  exstirpentur  et 
redeat  puritas  in  ecclesias  el  mundities  Latinl  sermonis  in  scholas. " 

3  G.  Voigt,  Die  Wiederbelebung  des  Altertums^  3rd  ed.,  Berlin,  1893,  pp. 
72>  403- 


246  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

foe,  who  takes  the  citadel  whence  his  glory  shall  be  visible  to 
all  the  earth  to  the  end  of  time,  and  whose  fame  shall  be  cele- 
brated by  so  many  thousands  of  men  as  are  grains  of  sand  on 
the  shore  of  the  sea.  Hence  we  call  upon  all  whom  the  Muses 
have  endowed  with  their  gifts  to  bestir  themselves  and  to  strive 
for  what  has  fired  the  souls  of  the  bravest  of  men."  The 
teachers  were  the  readier  to  arouse  the  emulation  of  their  pupils, 
because  they  had  abandoned  the  severity  of  the  medieval  schools 
as  a  remnant  of  a  barbaric  age,  and  thus  the  system  of  school 
offices  and  prizes  came  into  being,  which,  while  appearing  in  its 
extreme  form  in  Trotzendorf's  school  at  Goldberg  (Silesia),  was 
in  vogue,  though  in  a  modified  form,  in  the  Jesuit  schools  also.2 

An  educational  ideal  that  attached  so  much  importance  to 
the  skill  of  the  virtuoso  naturally  encouraged  the  tendencies 
always  associated  with  virtuosity.  The  consummate  skill  and 
the  artistic  finish  served  only  too  often  as  a  mere  adornment  of 
the  individual  personality.  The  period  was  vain  of  its  charms 
and  graces,  and  there  was  little  concentration;  men  flitted  from 
one  subject  to  another,  without  ever  deciding  on  a  special  occu- 
pation or  attaining  to  a  mastery  of  any  science.  Many  enter- 
tained a  sceptical  view  of  human  things,  were  Epicureans  and 
naturalists  in  philosophy,  and  worshipped  a  subjectivity  that 
was  opposed  to  the  moral  and  the  historical  order.  The  age, 
however,  was  not  frivolous,  and  the  religious  controversies  of 
the  time  as  well  as  the  efforts  towards  harmonizing  ecclesiastical 
and  public  conditions  checked  the  growth  of  the  evil  tendencies. 
However,  these  tendencies  served  subsequently  as  links  in  the 
chain  that  connected  the  Renaissance  with  the  Enlightenment: 
the  Encomium  morice  of  Erasmus  prepared  the  way  for  Voltaire, 
and  Montaigne's  Essays  popularized  the  ideas  that  later  proved 
the  foundation  of  Rousseau's  pedagogy. 

4.  With  the  Renaissance  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  ancient 
classics  and  intent  on  re-instating  ancient  ideals,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  many  elements  were  introduced  that  were  by  their 
nature  antagonistic  to  Christian  educational  principles.  Yet  in 
spite  of  this  obvious  danger,  the  period  remained  on  the  whole, 
like  the  Middle  Ages,  faithful  in  its  final  aims  to  the  Christian 


1  Joach.  Fortii,  De  ratione  studii  liber  in  H.  Grotii  et  aliorum  dissertationes 
de  studiis  instituendis  (Amstel.,  1645),  p.  252.     The  book  was  re -edited  by 
Comenius,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  this  truly  pious  man  took  no  offence  at  its 
pagan  spirit. 

2  Cf.  R.  Schwickerath,  S.J.,  Jesuit  Education,  St.  Louis,  1903,  pp.  511  ff. 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  RENAISSANCE   EDUCATION.  247 

ideals.1  The  example  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  who  had 
succeeded  in  reconciling  the  spirit  of  antiquity  with  the  Christian 
doctrines,  was  a  favorite  argument  to  show  that  devotion  to  the 
Church  was  not  incompatible  with  the  appreciation  of  the 
classics.  St.  Basil's  Address  to  the  Young  Men  on  the  Right  Use 
of  Greek  Literature  was  frequently  re-edited,  translated,  and 
quoted,  and  St.  Augustine  appeared  as  a  convincing  proof  that 
apparently  contradictory  elements  can  combine  to  produce  one 
harmonious  whole.  The  process  of  assimilation  was  much  as- 
sisted by  the  attention  of  the  period  being  taken  up,  in  the 
main,  with  the  form  and  the  technique  of  the  pagan  writers; 
and  while  the  mastery  of  the  language  remained  the  sole  aim, 
little  harm  would  seem  to  come  from  the  pagan  content  of  the 
classics.  •  Still,  the  cult  of  the  classics  was  not  without  danger, 
for  the  mind  was  never  so  entirely  taken  up  with  the  style  as 
not  to  be  affected  by  the  pagan  spirit  of  the  works  that  were 
read  and  studied  and  imitated;  and  this  pagan  atmosphere  is 
known  to  have  given  rise  to  many  a  soul-struggle  and  to  much 
heartburning.  There  were  some  men,  particularly  among  the 
early  Humanists,  whose  world-view  was  that  of  the  ancient 
pagans.  Others  were  at  war  with  themselves;  their  heart  was 
Christian,  but  their  head  was  hopelessly  pagan.  Others,  again, 
tried  to  compromise  between  the  hostile  forces.  In  the  lives  of 
many,  Christianity  was  relegated  almost  out  of  sight,  and  their 
thoughts  and  guiding  principles  were  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome.  Yet  others  were  actuated  by  the  motive  of  making  the 
new  interests  assist  them  in  their  striving  for  Christian  per- 
fection. The  more  gifted  of  the  Italian  Humanists  were  mostly 
semi-pagans;  but  Guarino,  Vittorino,  Pico,  Traversari,  were  one 
in  spirit  with  the  conservative  older  German  Humanists,  Agri- 
cola,  Hegius,  Wimpheling,  and  Tritemius.  In  the  spirit  of  this 
latter  class  the  Spaniard  Luis  Vives  describes,  in  his  work  De 
disciplinis  (i53i),2  the  ethos  of  education  thus:  "Education  is 
based  on  diverse  matters,  on  native  talent,  power  of  judgment, 
memory,  and  study.  Now,  the  first  three  of  these  are  assuredly 

1  Boccaccio  was  the  first  to  engage  in  a  systematic  defence  of  "poetry" 
against  the  attacks  of  Scholastic  theologians.     In  books  XIV.  and  XV.  of  his 
Genealogia  deorum,  written   about   1370,   he  maintains  that  the  ancient  poets 
had  also  been  theologi,  though  not  sacri. 

2  On  the  educational  side  Lange  has  traced  the  permeating  influence  of 
Vives  as  of  startling  significance  in  later  pedagogy.     See  Schmid,  Enzyklopddie 
des  gesamten  Erziehungs-und  Unterrichtswescns,\o\.  IX,  pp.  843-851 ;  cf.  McCor- 
mick,  History  of  Education,  pp.  195-204,  and  Watson,  Fives'  "On  Education," 
New  York,  1913. 


248  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

the  free  gifts  of  God's  bounty;  and  the  scholar  may  thus  boast, 
perhaps,  only  of  his  amount  of  study,  which  is  the  last,  and 
indeed  also  the  least,  factor  in  his  success,  and  even  it  depends, 
in  a  large  measure,  on  the  Lord,  for  it  is  only  when  God  grants 
us  bodily  health  that  we  can  study  well.  ...  It  is,  therefore, 
meet  that  we  beg  Him,  who  is  the  Giver  of  all,  to  assist  us  in 
order  that  we  may  study  chiefly  for  our  own  advancement,  lest 
He  make  us  an  instrument  for  the  benefit  of  others  while  we 
ourselves  become  castaways .  . .  like  the  candle  which  gives  light 
to  others  while  consuming  itself.  Let  -us  pray  before  all  our 
studies,  as  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  and  other  holy  men  have  done; 
and  let  us  pray  that  our  mental  work  be  wholesome,  harmful  to 
none,  and  full  of  blessings  to  all." 

5.  The  religious  conflict  of  the  i6th  century  brought  the 
crisis  in  the  assimilation  of  the  Humanistic  elements  with  the 
teachings  of  Christianity.2  In  the  first  stages  of  the  conflict 
the  interest  in  education  was  reduced  to  a  minimum,  all  scholars 
being  busy  with  theological  problems.  It  was  only  when  men 
turned  from  the  religious  struggle  to  the  organizing  of  a  new 
order  that  the  Humanistic  movement  again  commanded  atten- 
tion, but  all  its  forces  seemed  now  to  be  separated  by  a  great 
divide,  which  had  sprung  up,  as  it  were,  over  night:  the  two 
religious  parties  directed  the  stream  to  their  respective  domains 
and  controlled  it  in  accordance  with  their  own  principles.  The 
Protestantism  of  the  i6th  century  and  neological  Humanism 
have  many  important  points  in  common:  they  were  one  in  op- 
posing the  Middle  Ages  and  Scholasticism.  Both  declared  it 
their  intention  to  go  back,  skipping  the  intervening  centuries, 
to  the  olden  days,  and  hence  Humanism  revived  the  learning 
of  classical  antiquity,  while  Protestantism  revived  what  it  in- 
terpreted as  the  teachings  and  practices  of  primitive  Christian- 
ity. Both  stressed — the  Humanists  in  aesthetics  and  the  Protes- 
tants in  theology — the  subjective  and  personal  consciousness  of 
the  individual  in  opposition  to  what  had  been  handed  down  by 
tradition  and  was  received  and  treasured  in  the  collective  con- 
sciousness. Luther  realized  how  much  the  revival  of  the  clas- 
sical studies  aided  him  in  establishing  his  new  principle  of  the 
Bible's  being  the  sole  rule  of  Faith,  and  he  publicly  avowed  that 
"None  knew  why  the  Lord  brought  about  this  new  study  of 


1  Joh.  Lud.  Vives,  De  disciplinis  libri  XII,  Neap.,  1764,  p.  385. 

2  Cf.  Baudrillart,  The  Catholic  Church,  the  Renaissance  and  Protestantism, 
transl.  by  Gibbs,  New  York,  1908. 


GENERAL   VIEW   OF   RENAISSANCE    EDUCATION.  249 

languages,  until  it  is  now  seen  that  this  was  done  for  the  sake 
of  the  Gospel,  of  which  the  Lord  desired  that  it  be  thereafter 
revealed."  Accordingly  he  favored  the  new  learning,  addressing 
his  followers  thus:  "As  dearly  as  you  love  the  Gospel,  so  much 
care  ought  you  to  devote  to  the  study  of  languages."  It  is 
impossible  to  establish  a  closer  union  between  philology  and 
theology  than  is  implied  by  another  saying  of  Luther,  "Nihil 
aliud  esse  theologiam,  nisi  grammaticam  in  Spiritus  sancti  verbis 
occupatam."  Guided  by  these  principles,  the  many  schoolmen 
who  followed  Melanchthon's  leadership  undertook  to  assimilate 
Humanistic  and  Christian  ideas.  Sturmius'  "wise  and  eloquent 
piety"  may  well  describe  the  educational  aim  of  these  edu- 
cators. Comenius'  aim  in  education  was  somewhat  similar;  but 
he  emphasized  the  positive  content  of  education,  when  saying 
that  the  teacher  should  strive  to  prepare  his  pupils  for  eternity 
by  teaching  them  the  service  of  the  Lord,  pure  morals,  and  an 
erudition  based  on  a  knowledge  of  things  and  the  power  of 
expression. 

6.  Catholic  educators  interpreted  the  activity  of  the  Human- 
ists to  be  primarily  only  the  continuation  of  the  educational 
work  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  this  difference,  that  there  was 
an  increase  in  matter  and  an  improvement  in  form.  Conse- 
quently, they  set  about  to  adjust  the  new.  learning  to  the  theo- 
logy of  the  Church  and  the  philosophy  of  the  Scholastics.  The 
principle  of  authority  —  formulated  by  Valla  as  pro  lege  ac- 
cipere^  quidquid  magnis  'auctoribus  placuit^  and  which  was  at 
the  bottom  of  the  cult  of  the  classics — could  not  fail  to  be  ac- 
•ceptable  to  the  Church:  the  authority  of  Aristotle  in  philosophy 
and  that  of  Cicero  in  style  and  composition  was  now  paralleled 
with  the  authority  enjoyed  by  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  in  theology. 
The  aesthetical  culture  afforded  by  the  study  of  classical  anti- 
quity gave  little  cause  for  apprehension,  especially  since  the 
statuary  and  paintings  of  the  Renaissance  evidenced,  that  the 
technique  perfected  through  the  familiarity  with  ancient  models 
might  admirably  serve  the  needs  of  religion  and  the  Church. 
The  knowledge,  too,  of  antiquity  was  considered  of  as  great  a 
value  as  ever  for  the  interpretation  of  theological  sources  (Scrip- 
ture, Fathers,  Church  history),  but  of  particular  value  for  fur- 
nishing the  weapons  to  defeat  the  enemy  on  his  own  ground; 
and  these  were  plainly  reasons  enough  to  encourage  the  new 
interest  in  history.  It  was  also  recognized  that  the  language 

i  Laur.  VTalla,  Elegantia1,  II,  pricf. 


250  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

studies  would  provide  wholesome  discipline  for  the  pupils  and 
at  the  same  time  promote  a  greater  uniformity  of  the  curricula.1 
Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  advantages,  voices  were  heard 
occasionally,  among  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants,  charging 
the  ancient  classics  with  being  a  source  of  pagan  sentiments, 
and  the  accusations  of  the  Fathers  against  Grseco-Roman  liter- 
ature were  reiterated.  The  learned  Jesuit  Possevini  demanded 
that  only  Christian  authors  be  read  in  the  schools,2  and  Come- 
nius  advocated — at  least  in  his  Great  Didactic — a  Latin  course 
without  the  ancient  classics.3  But  the  prevailing  view  had  it 
that  the  ancient  classics  were  indispensable  for  training  the 
mind  and  developing  the  language  consciousness,  and  the  Hu- 
manists contended  that  the  teaching  content  of  the  Christian 
religion  possessed  vitality  and  strength  enough  to  oppose  effec- 
tively whatever  the  pagan  writings  contained  of  foreign  and 
heterogeneous  elements. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
The  Content  of  Renaissance  Education. 

i.  Philology,  a  new  and  modern  science,  was  the  most  im- 
portant and  the  most  comprehensive  of  the  Renaissance  studies. 
It  had  originated  in  Italy  in  the  I4th  century,  less  as  a  science 
than  as  an  organon  to  meet  a  universal  need;  and  in  its  original 
form  it  was  intended  to  further  the  study  of  antiquity  as  well 
as  to  assist  in  reviving  the  art  of  language.  The  formal  and 
sesthetical  character  which  it  acquired  during  the  Italian  period, 
could  be  developed  only  after  its  scientific  basis  had  been  firmly 
established.  French  scholars  infused  the  scientific  spirit  into 
polite  literature,  and  the  endeavor  to  provide  the  thesaurus 
eruditionis,  which  was  needed  for  a  complete  understanding  of 
antiquity,  complemented  the  narrow  cult  of  form.  But  the  age 
lacked  the  philosophical  training,  the  prerequisite  for  a  correct 

1  We  have  here  considered  the  subject  from  the  didactic  viewpoint  only; 
considered  from  the  pedagogical  point  of  view,  further  differences  would  have 
to  be  noted  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  education,  as  may  be  seen  from 
Willmann's  article  on  katholische  Pddagogik  in  Rein's  Enzykl.  Handb.  der  Pd- 
dagogik. 

2  Gaume,  Paganism  in  Education,  transl.  by  Hill,  London,  1852,  pp.  77-79. 

3  Did.  Magna,  cap.  25. 


THE  CONTENT  OF   RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.  25! 

interpretation  of  antiquity,  and  Renaissance  philology  eventu- 
ally tended,  in  keeping  with  the  general  trend  of  the  lyth  cen- 
tury, toward  encyclopedic  knowledge. 

As  a  school  subject,  however,  philology  retained  in  general 
its  formal  character;  eloquence  was  considered  the  chief  subject 
to  be  taught  in  the  schools,  while  the  acquiring  of  erudition 
was  reserved  for  maturer  years.  Erasmus  avowed — and  his 
educational  views  were  held  in  high  repute — that  the  acquiring 
of  a  knowledge  of  words  and  formal  training  must  precede  the 
acquiring  of  a  knowledge  of  things,  though  the  latter  is  in  itself 
of  greater  importance.  He  warns  his  readers  against  hurrying 
"with  unwashed  feet"  to  the  study  of  things.1  The  school 
regulations  are  either  silent  on  the  subject  of  studying  the  con- 
tent and  the  antiquities,  or  they  mention  these  things  only 
incidentally;  as  in  the  Ratio  studiorum  of  the  Jesuits,  where  the 
term  eruditio  implies  merely  the  occasional  introduction  of  an- 
tiquarian matters  and  that  for  the  sake  of  affording  relaxation 
or  of  stimulating  to  greater  interest,  but  this  may  never  be 
done  at  the  expense  of  the  study  of  style.2  The  didacticians  of 
the  iyth  century  were  the  first  to  demand  that  continuous 
attention  be  given  to  the  content  as  well  as  to  the  form.  How- 
ever, even  the  Orbis  -pictus  is  primarily  only  a  Latin  language 
book,  with  illustrations  of  things  to  facilitate  the  memorizing 
of  the  words,  and  it  was  neither  calculated  nor  adapted  to  pre- 
pare for  such  a  reading  of  the  classics  as  aimed  chiefly  to  get  at 
the  thought  content  of  the  text.  The  latter  method  of  reading 
the  classics  did  not  appeal  to  that  age,  and  this  was  owing  as 
well  to  the  general  striving  for  the  perfection  of  form  as  to  the 
prevailing  interest  in  encyclopedic  knowledge. 

Latin  was  regarded  as  far  and  away  the  most  important 
study,  and  most  educational  works  of  the  period,  the  writings 
of  the  didacticians  included,  treat  only  of  the  teaching  of  Latin. 
Of  the  authors,  Cicero  was  read  most.  He  was  considered  the 


1  Erasmus,  De  ratione  studii  tract.,  in.;  "Principle  duplex  omnino  videtur 
cognitio:  rerum  ac  verborum;  verborum  prior,  rerum  potior.     Sed  nonnulli,  dum 
dvl-n-Tois  (ut  ajunf)  iroa-tv  ad  res  discendas  festinant,  sermonis  curam  neglegunt  et 
male  affectato  compendia,  in  maxima  incidunt  dispendia. " 

2  In  the  Ratio  atque  institutio  stud.  S.J.  the  professor  of  Humanities  is 
advised,  "Eruditio  modice  usurpetur,  ut  ingenia  excilet  interdum  ac  recreet,  non 
ut  lingua;  observationem  impediat;"  and  the  professor  of  Rhetoric  is  told  to  treat 
the  following  matters  •"  Eruditio  ex  historia  et  moribus  gentium,  ex  auctoritate 
scriptorum  et  ex  omni  doctrina,  sed parcius  ad  captum  discipulorum  accersenda." 
Cf.  Schwickerath,  1.  c.,  pp.  447  ff.  and  485  ff. 


252  THE   RENAISSANCE. 

model  of  letter-writers — his  letters,  as  selected  by  Sturmius, 
were  the  elementary  Latin  reader — as  well  as  of  orators  and 
philosophical  writers.  It  was  a  favorite  practice  to  read  of  the 
historians  the  orations  only,  as  Trotzendorf  is  known  to  have 
done  in  the  case  of  Livy.  Of  the  poets,  Vergil,  Ovid,  and  Hor- 
ace were  read  most.  The  plays  of  Plautus  and  Terence  were 
read  in  Protestant  schools  on  account  of  their  conversational 
Latin,  and  the  fact  that  the  immoral  content  of  these  plays  did 
not  prevent  their  being  given  into  the  hands  of  the  young,  is 
another  proof  of  the  scant  attention  given  to  the  content  of  the 
classics.1  Special  importance  was  attached  to  the  memorizing  of 
gnomic  sayings  and  quotations  that  were  witty  or  otherwise 
noteworthy.  Collections  of  such  sayings,  called  Adagio,^  Flori- 
tegia,  Spicilegia,  etc.,  were  in  use  in  the  schools,  and  the  pupils 
were  encouraged  to  make  their  own  "commonplace  books"  by 
making  extracts  from  their  reading.2  These  quotations  (those  in 
the  textbooks  as  well  as  those  collected  by  the  pupils)  served 
the  double  purpose  of  being  used  as  arguments  or  ornaments 
in  compositions  and  of  getting  the  young  to  think.  The  text- 
books and  teaching  methods  of  the  medieval  schools  were  out 
of  favor  with  the  Renaissance;  the  Doctrinale  of  Alexander  was 
labeled  as  barbaric,  and  the  attempts  of  Despauterius  (Jan  van 
Pauteran,  died  1526)  to  compose  more  artistic  verses  for  the 
teaching  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  met  with  little  encourage- 
ment. Didactic  aids  were  discarded  in  grammar,  and  this  sub- 
ject was  presented  in  an  abstract  form,  and  its  material  was 
enlarged  considerably.  In  1614  Lubinus  complained  that  the 
pupils  were  compelled  to  memorize  no  less  than  180  technical 
terms  and  more  than  70  rules  of  syntax  with  an  equal  number 
of  exceptions,  some  of  which  were  so  obscure  as  to  be  unintel- 
ligible to  even  the  mature  student.3  These  and  similar  abuses 
led  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  demanding  that  Latin  be  taught 
in  the  manner  of  the  mother-tongue.  Montaigne  favored  this 
method,  and  Ratke  tried  it  out  prattically  when  adopting  some 

1  A  Wiirttemberg  school  ordinance  provides  that  the  Praceptores,  when 
meeting  dangerous  passages,  "call  the  attention  of  their  pupils  to'  the  fact,  that 
the  writers  were  pagans  and  knew  nothing  of  God  and  His  Gospel,  resembling 
herein  some  degenerate  modern  Christians  who  are  likewise  ignorant   of  the 
same  holy  law;  they  are  to  quote  an  example  and  n  text  from  Scripture  to 
show  how  the  Lord  has  visited  these  sins  with  His  just  punishment;  they  are 
in  general  to  be  on  their  guard,  lest  they  scandalize  the  tender  consciences  of 
the  young. "     Vormbaum,  Evangelisehe  Schuiordnungen,  I,  p.  83. 

2  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  s.  v.  Commonplace  Books. 

3  Raumer,  Geschichte  der  Pddagogik,  III,  p.  83. 


THE    CONTENT  OF   RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.  253 

of  the  practices  of  the  early  Rabbinical  schools  (see  supra,  ch. 
vii,  3).  The  mean  between  these  two  extremes  we  see  in  the 
language  books  of  Comenius,  and  his  Vestibulum^  edition  of 
I648,1  is  in  methodical  arrangement  the  best  textbook  of  the 
period. 

2.  Theoretically,  Greek  was  evaluated  as  highly  as  Latin. 
Erasmus  declares  that  all  that  is  worth  knowing  has  been  written 
in  these  two  languages,  and  that  it  is  easier,  because  of  their 
kinship,  to  teach  them  conjointly  than  separately;  yet  he  does 
not  ignore  the  peculiar  difficulties  of  Greek,  its   magni  labyrinthi 
et  vastissimi  recessus.      Quintilian's  demand  to  begin  with  Greek 
is   frequently  discussed,   and  Vittorino   da   Feltre    (died   1446) 
probably   taught   Greek   before   Latin.     Robert    Etienne    (died 
1559)  followed  the  same  course  in  the  education  of  his  son  Henry 
(died  1598),  and  Tanneguy  Lefebre  (died  1672)  also  gave  the 
preference  to  Greek  in  the  education  of  his  son  as  well  as  his 
daughter,    the    celebrated    Madame  Dacier;2   Lefebre    followed 
Scaliger's  example3  in   basing  the  study  of  Greek  on  Homer. 
The  "Father  of  the  Poets"  found  enthusiastic  admirers  in  this 
period.     Claude  Belurger,  who  introduced  Greek  into  the  Col- 
lege de  Navarre  in  Paris,  took  his  Homer  along  to  church,  had 
statues  made  of  the  Homeric  heroes,  and  finally  undertook  a 
journey  to  Troy;  but  the  hardships  of  travel  were  his  death, 
and  thus  his  extensive  commentary  on  Homer  was  lost.4    When 
Martin  Crusius  lectured  on  Homer  at  Tubingen,  the  lecture-hall 
proved  too  small  for  the  students  eager  to  hear  him;  hence  a 
wall  was  removed  to  provide  more  room,  and  the  hall  was  ever 
after   known   as   the  auditorium  Homericum.*    Many  programs 
of  study  (for  instance,  the  Ratio  studiorum  of  the  Jesuits)  state 
that  Greek  should   be  begun   simultaneously  with  Latin,   and 
give  long  lists  of  Greek  authors,  pagan  and  Christian,  to  be 
read;    but    these   ideals    were    not    generally   realized.     In    the 
Protestant  schools  the  New  Testament  and  a  few  moral  writ- 
ings— as,  Xenophon's  Memorabilia^  Kebes'.Pinax,  or  the  treatise 
on   education   ascribed   to   Plutarch  —  were   read,   while   y£sop, 
Phokylides,  and  passages  from  St.  John  Chrysostom,  etc.,  were 

1  Opp.  did.,  Ill,  pp.  134-214-. 

2  Morhof,  Polyhistor  litterariusy  II,  9,  §47.     Lefebre 's  views  on  the  course 
of  study  are  embodied  in  his  Methode  pour  commencer  les  humanites  Grecques 
et  Latines  (1672). 

3  J.  Bernays,  J.  J.  Stali^er,  Berlin,  1855,  p.  35. 

4  Morhof,  "1.  c.,  VII,  2,  £  2. 

5  J.  M.  Gesner,  Isago^e  in  crud.  univ.y  ed.  Nicl.,  1773,  I,  §  154. 


254  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

read  in  the  Catholic  schools.  Greek  was  allowed  at  best  only 
half  the  number  of  the  Latin  class  periods.  Especially  in  the 
i yth  century  Greek  seems  to  have  been  taught  only  for  honor's 
sake,  and  the  opinion  was  quite  general  that  it  was  of  value 
only  to  the  specialist  in  theology  or  medicine  and,  therefore, 
on  a  par  with  Hebrew  and  Arabic;1  nay,  Descartes  declared  the 
study  of  Greek  to  be  of  as  little  value  as  the  study  of  the  "Jar- 
gon of  Bretony. "  The  taste  of  the  period  regarded  the  JEneid, 
the  tragedies  of  Seneca,  and  the  poems  of  Horace  as  the  classics 
of  poetry.  Homer  was  regarded  as  childish  and  vulgar,  and 
Sophocles  and  Pindar  were  considered  stilted  and  obscure.  The 
Latin  nations,  the  leaders  in  the  Renaissance,  were  conscious  of 
their  kinship  with  the  spirit  of  ancient  Rome,  and  consequently 
remained  impervious  to  the  deeper  meaning  of  Greek  literature. 
It  was  left  to  the  Renaissance  of  i8th  century  German  literature 
to  establish  a  direct  intercommunion  with  the  soul  of  the  Greeks. 
The  interest  in  Biblical  research  brought  it  about  that  He- 
brew was  considered  an  element  of  higher  learning.  In  Germany, 
Reuchlin  was  the  foremost  teacher  of  Greek  as  well  as  of  He- 
brew, and  the  latter  subject  was  generally  taught  in  the  higher 
Protestant  schools.  Michael  Neander,  rector  of  Ilefeld,  who 
has  deserved  well  of  German  education,  grows  eloquent  in 
speaking  of  the  educational  value  of  Hebrew:  "The  Hebrcea 
Lingua  is  of  use  not  only  to  the  Theologis  but  to  all  Studiosis, 
who  should  be  desirous  to  be  for  their  lifelong  day  familiar 
with  this  language,  for  it  is  the  alma  mater  omnium  linguarum 
omnibus  cetatibus  omnium  gentium.  All  other  languages  have 
come  from  the  Hebrew,  and  it  imparts  of  its  wealth  to  them 
all,  but  itself  lays  no  other  tongue  under  contribution.  .  .  . 
The  Lingua  Hebraica  should,  therefore,  be  a  thing  of  joy.  It 
should  be  studied  by  every  one  having  the  opportunity,  propter 
collationem  cum  aliis  'linguis  and  propter  utilem  explicationem 
multarum  rerum  in  omni  vita  and  also  propter  Grammaticam 
Latinam^  in  which  at  times  there  is  a  question  de  declinatione 
nominum  Hebraorum." 

1  Comenius,  Didact.  ma^na,  22,  i.     Arabic  was  still  considered  important 
in  the  study  of  medicine,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  Avicenna's  canon 
continued  to  enjoy  so  great  an  authority  as  to  appear  in  more  than  a  dozen 
Latin  editions  during  the   I5th  and   i6th  centuries   (Spreneer,  Mohammed, 
Berlin,  1861,  I,  IV). 

2  Oeurres,  ed.  Cousin,  XI,  p.  341  (from  Schmid's  Enzykl.  II,  1st  ed.,  p.  911). 

3  Michaelis  Neandri,  Bedencken,  wie  ein  Knabe  zti  leiten  und  zu  unterweisen, 
etc.  (1582),  published  in  Vormbaum,  Evang.  SchuJordnungcn,Giiters\oh,  1860, 

I,  PP-  747-765- 


THE  CONTENT  OF  RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.  255 

3.  Although  the  system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts  was  of 
classical  origin,  and  though  it  had  been  highly  esteemed  by  the 
Romans  also,  yet  the  Renaissance,  while  extolling  it  in  academic 
orations  and  essays,  failed  to  adopt  it  in  the  schools.  One 
reason  was  the  aversion  of  the  refined  taste  of  the  Renaissance 
to  the  form  in  which  it  had  been  handed  down  by  late  Latin 
writers,  not  to  speak  of  the  barbarous  Latin  of  the  medieval 
commentaries.  A  second  reason  was  the  great  divergency  of 
opinions  in  evaluating  the  different  arts  and  sciences  belonging 
to  the  system.  Grammar  and  rhetoric  were  no  longer  regarded 
as  merely  propaedeutic  studies,  but  were  deemed  of  prime  im- 
portance and  declared  to  be  the  real  organon  of  education. 
Medieval  dialectic  was  made  the  butt  of  the  Humanists'  at- 
tacks; but  in  a  modified  form  it  was  universally  taught  under 
the  name  of  ars  disserendi,  because  needed  for  rhetoric.  The 
interest  of  the  age  being  centred  in  the  expression  of  thought, 
it  was  to  be  expected  that  logic  should  be  connected  with  rhet- 
oric, and  it  was  conceived  as  the  art  of  giving  intellectual  strength 
to  what  was  said  or  written.  Thus  all  three  arts  of  the  Tri- 
vium  are  frequently  correlated  with  language:  grammar  teaches 
the  sermo  emendatus\  dialectic,  the  sermo  •probabilis\  and  rhet- 
oric, the  sermo  ornatus. 1  Melanchthon  defined  dialectic  as  the 
ars  et  via  docendi^  i.  £.,  as  the  art  of  presentation,  and  thus 
dialectic  embraced  what  was  later  treated  in  the  science  of 
didactics.  The  rules  of  logic  were  now  drawn,  not  only  from 
Aristotle,  but  also  from  the  orators  and  the  rhetoricians.  Vives 
and  Nizolius  "do  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge  that  they  are 
more  indebted  to  Cicero  than  to  Plato  and  Aristotle,  because 
the  latter  separated  philosophy  from  rhetoric."2  Peter  Ramus 
(died  1572)  even  asserted  that  the  study  of  the  methods  em- 
ployed by  Cicero  and  other  orators  to  persuade  their  hearers, 
was  a  better  means  to  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  logic  than  the 
study  of  Aristotle's  Organon.  Ramus'  reform  of  logic,  which 
was  at  first  fiercely  opposed,  is  based  on  the  idea  that  rhetoric 
and  logic  are  only  parts  of  a  more  general  and  more  compre- 
hensive science;  and,  though  Ramus  failed  to  draw  all  con- 
clusions from  this  first  principle,  his  movement  represents  one 
of  the  most  noteworthy  features  of  the  Renaissance,  and  has 


1  These  are  the  terms  employed  by  Jacob  Micyllus  (Molzer),  rector  in 
Frankfort  on  the  Main;  cf.  Helfenstein,  Die  Entwicklung  des  Schulwesens  in 
bezug  auf  Frankfurt,  1858,  p.  90. 

2  Erdmann,  Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,  Berlin,  1 869,  I,  p.  500. 


256  THE   RENAISSANCE. 

determined,  to  some  extent,  the  teaching  of  logic  down  to  our 
own  day.1 

While  the  disciplines  of  the  Trivium  were  thus  granted  a 
new  lease  on  life,  the  mathematical  sciences  of  the  Quadrivium 
were  neglected.  We  should  expect  the  exact  opposite  of  the 
age  of  Copernicus  and  Galilei,  but  the  mathematical  sciences 
were  at  that  time  breaking  with  the  past,  and  their  consequently 
unsettled  condition  rendered  them  unattractive  to  the  masses 
who  are  eager  for  definite  results,  but  are  not  interested  in  the 
researches  of  the  laboratory  or  the  observatory.  The  scholars 
of  the  period  gave  most  attention  to  philology  and  encyclopedic 
knowledge;'  and  the  few  men  who  were  interested  in  the  physical 
sciences,  could  not  understand  the  importance  of  mathematics. 
Comenius  tried  to  incorporate  mathematics  with  technical  in- 
struction,3 but  in  his  Janua  and  the  Orbis  pictus  we  find  little 
enough  of  mathematical  material.  The  few  schools  that  did 
teach  the  Quadrivium  adhered  to  the  Ptolomaic  system,  and 
Comenius  himself  does  not  even  mention  the  system  of  Coper- 
nicus.4 

Philosophy  also  lost  its  popular  character.  No  poet  of  the 
Renaissance  would  have  ventured  to  imitate  Dante  who,  after 
the  Scholastics  had  popularized  philosophical  topics,  could  treat, 
in  his  Divine  Comedy,  the  most  abstruse  questions  of  meta- 
physics and  ethics  without  becoming  obscure  to  his  readers. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  501.     Ramus  is  responsible  for  the  distinction  between  natural 
and  scientific  logic  and  for  the  practice  of  treating  the  concept  before  the  judg- 
ment.    His  shortsighted  opposition  to  Aristotle — at  his  master's  examination, 
in  1536,  he  defended  the  thesis:  "All  that  Aristotle  has  said  is  false"  —  pre- 
vented him  from  reaping  the  full  fruit  of  his  first  principles. 

2  Galilei  complains  in  a  letter  to  Kepler   as   follows:    "What  will  you  say 
of  the  first  teachers  of  the  Padua  gymnasium,  who  one  and  all  declined  my 
offer  to  show  them  the  planets,  the  moon,  and  my  telescope?     This  class  of 
people  looks  upon  philosophy  as  contained  within  the  .boards  of  a  book,  like 
the  Aeneid  or  the  Odyssey^  and  are  firmly  convinced  that  truth  is  to  be  found 
neither  in  the  world  nor  in  nature,  but  only  in  the  collating  of  texts.     How 
you  would  have  laughed  at  the  first  teacher  of  the  Pisa  gymnasium,  who  at- 
tempted, in  the  presence  of  the  Archduke,  to  disprove  with  his  syllogisms  the 
existence  of  the  new  planets;  he  tried  with  his  syllogisms  as  the  magic  formulas 
to  tear  down  the  new  planets  from  the  heavens."     (Quoted  from  Zollner's 
WissenschaftL  Abhandl.^  II,  p.  941). 

3  Did.  magna,  30,  8. 

4  The  Janua  (Amsterdam  edition  of  1662)  §§31  ft.,  treats  the  sun  and  moon 
as  planets,  speaks  of  the  epicycles  of  Mercury,  etc.,  of  the  eighth  sphere  of  the 
fixed  stars,  etc., — and  all  this  was  possible  119  years  after  the  De  orbium  cale- 
stium  revolutionibus  lilri  VI.  had  appeared! 


THE  CONTENT  OF  RENAISSANCE   EDUCATION.  257 

Only  select  circles  were  engaged  in  restoring  the  ancient  phi- 
losophies, and  the  attempts,  few  as  they  were,  to  strike  out  into 
new  paths  did  not  meet  with  general  favor.  The  schools  con- 
tinued to  teach  Aristotelian-Scholastic  logic.  Melanchthon  had 
done  well  in  simplifying  the  methods  of  teaching  this  subject, 
and  the  textbooks  used  in  the  Catholic  schools  likewise  became 
less  unwieldy  in  form.  The  terminology  of  present-day  logic 
dates  back  to  the  Renaissance,  and  many  of  the  philosophical 
terms  coined  in  that  period  are  still  part  of  the  common  vocabu- 
lary of  the  cultured. 

4.  More  importance  was  attached  to  empirico-historical 
knowledge,  "for  this  was  recognized  as  a  necesasry  adjunct  to 
eloquence.  Works  purporting  to  comprise  all  that  was  worth 
knowing  were  produced  in  great  number.  The  term  "cyclo- 
pedia," or  "encyclopedia,"  first  came  into  use  in  the  i6th 
century,  but  there  was  no  dearth  of  other  terms  to  express  the 
same  kind  of  work:  polymathy,  polyhistory.,  panepistemony, 
pansophy,  pankosmy,  anatomy  of  heads  and  sciences,  theatre 
of  life  (of  wisdom,  of  the  world),  etc. — these  are  some  of  the 
high-sounding  titles  promising  the  reader  a  world  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge.  However,  in  many  cases  the  grandiloquent 
title  heralded  forth  the  beggarly  contents  of  a  meagre  com- 
pendium; for  instance,  Laurenberg's  Pansophia,  sive  Pcedia  phi- 
losophica  (Rostock,  1633).'  It  was  less  frequent  that  a  modest 
title  was  chosen  for  the  storehouse  of  valuable  knowledge:  the 
Commentarii  urbani  of  Raphael  of  Volaterra  is  an  encyclopedia 
that  begins  with  local  geography  and  history,  then  enlarges  its 
scope  to  introduce  extensive  biographies,  to  deal  with  popular 
philosophy  and  divers  other  sciences,  and  finally  concludes  with 
an  analysis  of  Aristotelian  philosophy.1  These  works  differ  from 
the  similar  compilations  made  in  the  Middle  Ages  chiefly  in 
that  most  of  the  Renaissance  encyclopedias  exclude  theology, 
but  treat  classical  antiquities.  There  were  isolated  attempts  to 
systematize  the  whole  of  human  knowledge;  witness  the  Thea- 
trum  humance  vitte  of  Theodor  Zwinger  (1586),  which  follows  a 
psychologico-ethical  plan,  and  whose  three  stout  folio  volumes 
must  have  cost  the  author  labor  like  that  expended  on  the 
compilations  of  Vincent  of  Beauvais.  Vives'  De  disciplinis  and 
Bacon's  Instauratio  magna  are  examples  of  the  few  attempts 

1  Cf.  Burckhardt,   The  Civilization  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  transl.  by 
Middlemore,  London,  1898,  part  III,  where  the  work  is  discussed  as  showing 
how  deeply  the  ancient  learning  had  affected  all  departments  of  knowledge. 
17 


258  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

% 

made  to  establish  methods  of  study  instead  of  merely  collecting 
materials.  Vives  followed  the  traditional  system  of  the  sciences, 
but  Bacon  based  his  division  of  the  sciences  on  a  psychological 
principle:  history  he  derives  from  memory;  poetry,  from  the 
imagination;  theology  and  philosophy,  from  the  intellect.  The 
period  was  particularly  fond  of  tabulating  the  various  materials. 
John  Thomas  Freigius  elaborated  Ramus'  presentation  of  the 
seven  liberal  arts  into  Tabulas  perpetuas  ceu  crr/ow/xaTa  relatas 
(Bale,  1576),  and  Comenius  recommends  the  map  as  a  model 
for  synoptic  compilations  or  anthologies.1  In  connection-  with 
the  latter  view,  it  may  be  noted  that  geography  in  general, 
which  had  grown  into  a  very  comprehensive  science  and  whose 
maps  were  an  excellent  aid  to  clear  and  general  views,  exerted 
some  influence  on  all  the  attempts  at  compilation:  the  fact 
that  the  terrestrial  globe  had  become  better  known,  suggests  to 
Bacon  that  more  attention  should  be  given  also  to  the  globus 
intellectualis? 

Amid  the  wealth  of  new  knowledge,  the  need  was  naturally 
felt  of  improved  methods  of  study  and  instruction.  The  Re- 
naissance revived  the  ancient  mnemotechnics  and  the  medieval 
Ars  magna  of  Raymond  Lully  (Raymundus  Lullus,  born  1234, 
died  1315),  whose  aim  was  to  employ  the  association  of  ideas 
for  the  purpose  of  rinding  thoughts.  A  kindred  tendency  gave 
birth  to  the  rational  art  of  teaching,  to  didactics,  rhadiomethy, 
Qbstetricia  animorum^  and  so  forth.8  Comenius  especially  shows 
the  intimate  relation  between  pansophy  and  these  new  sciences, 
while  Morhof  shows  their  connection  with  polymathy.4  Frei- 

1  Did.  magna.,  31,  8. 

2  Novum  Organon,  §  84. 

3  Cf.  supra,  Introd.,  II,  2;  the  "didacticia'ns"  are  classed  with  the  Lullians, 
for  instance,  in  Garr.oni's  Piazza  universale  (in  the  German  Frankfort  edition 
of  16^9,  pp.  208  ff.,  where  a  list  of  representatives  of  this  school  is  given). 

4  The  Polyhistor  of   the  learned  Daniel  George  Morhof  is  a  work  that  has 
not  been  appreciated  as  it  deserves  (ist  ed.,  Lubeck,  1688;  4th  ed.,  1747).     It 
is  superior  to  other  encyclopedias  in  that  it  does  not  only  present  the  materials 
of  knowledge,  but  also  treats  the  course  of  study  and  all  the  apparatus  belong- 
ing thereto.     The  latter  subjects  are  treated  in  the  first  part  (4th  ed.),  the 
Polyhistor  litterarius,  on  which  the  author  spent  most  labor.     The  first  book 
of  this  part  (Polyhistor  bibliothecarius)  treats  of  libraries,  books,  learned  socie- 
ties, cultured  conversation,  biographies  of  scholars,  letter-writing,  etc.     The 
second  book  (P.  msthodicus}  discusses  the  differences  in  talents,  schools,  aids 
to  study  and    memory,  etc.,  methods,  particularly  of  classical  schools,  the 
general  course    of  study,  university  studies,  education  of  princes,  etc.    The 
third  book    (P .  irapa<r*ceva<rrt»c6s)  treats  of  the  art  of  making  extracts.     The 
fourth  book  (P  .  grammaticus)  treats  of  language,  writing,  grammar,  especially 


THE  CONTENT  OF  RENAISSANCE   EDUCATION.  259 

gius,  rector  in  Altorf  and  later  assistant  rector  in  Bale  (died 
1583),  is  the  author  of  the  Pcedagogus,  which  is  a  good  example 
of  the  efforts  taken  to  remedy  with  multifarious  learning  the 
defects  of  purely  formal  training.  The  book  contains  little 
more  than  an  incoherent  mess  of  materials,  and  is  a  more  con- 
vincing proof  for  a  much-needed  reform  in  methods  of  study 
than  the  most  eloquent  expositions  of  the  didacticians.1  The 
chief  aim  of  Comenius — both  in  his  Janua  linguarum  reserata 
(first  ed.  1631)  and  in  his  Orbis  sensualium  pictus  (first  ed.  1658), 
the  latter  reproducing  all  the  essential  matters  of  the  Janua— 
was  to  correlate  more  systematically  the  encyclopedic  knowledge 
of  things  with  the  Latin  instruction.  Both  works  are  "encyclo- 
paediolae, "  intended  to  serve  at  the  same  time  as  Latin  readers,2 
and  the  great  pansophical  undertaking  of  Comenius  is  nothing 
else  than  the  realization  of  a  similar  plan,  though  this  latter 

Latin  grammar.  Books  V.  to  VII.  are  a  sort  of  general  history  of  literature. 
The  second,  and  smaller,  part  of  the  work  (P.  philosophicus)  contains  a  history 
of  philosophy  and  matter  pertaining  to  physics,  mathematics,  logic,  and  meta- 
physics. The  third,  and  smallest,  part  (P.  fractious)  contains  matter  pertain- 
ing to  ethics,  politics,  political  economy,  history,  theology,  jurisprudence,  and 
medicine.  Morhof  treats  didactics  as  a  department  of  logic  and  defines  it, 
somewhat  reservedly,  as  "  aliqua  doctrines  de  methodo  propago."  (Pol.  /iff., 
II,  4,  12.)  Cf.  W.  Eymer's  valuable  work  Morhof  und  sein  Polyhistor,  ein 
Beitrag  zur  Lehre  vom  Bildungswesen,  Budweis,  1893. 

1  The  full  title  of  the  book,  which  was  first  published  at   Bale  in  1583,  is: 
y.  Th.  Freigii  Pcedagogus,  hoc  est  libettus  ostendens,  qua  ratione  prima  artium 
initia  putris  quam  facillimc  tradi  possunt  (sic).     The  catechetical  form  is  ob- 
served   throughout.     The  artes  are  divided  into  exotericce  (grammar,  rhetoric, 
poetics,  logic)  and  acroamaticce  (mathematics,  physics,  and  ethics  —  the  last- 
named   including   history,  jurisprudence,   and  theology).     The  different  sub- 
jects   are   treated    in    the    following    order:    Grammatica  Latina  (pp.  1-18); 
Grceca  (to  p.  50);  Hebrcea  (to  p.  80);  dialogi  in  linguam  Gailicam  addisccndam 
(to  p.  124);  de  rhetoric*  (to  p.  130);  de  poetica  (to  p.  132);  de  logica  (to  p.  143); 
de  urithmetica  (to  p.  156);  de  musica  (to  p.  217);  de  geometria  (to  p.  224);  de  asse 
(to  p.  247;  under  this  head  are  treated  coins,  weights,  and  measures,  those  of 
the  Bible  included);  de  architectural  (to  p.  263;  Caesar's  bridge  across  the  Rhine, 
Bell.  Gall.,  IV,  is  here  discussed);  de  mechanica  (to  p.  268);  de  physica  (to  p. 
286;  astronomy  and  geography  are  treated  under  this  head);  de  ethica  (to  p. 
290:  of  virtues  and  human  organizations);  de  aeconomia  (to  p.  292;  the  eight 
duties  of  the  housewife  are  here  treated);  de  politia  (to  p.  295);  de  apodcmica 
(to  p.  297;  of  the  art  of  traveling);  de  antiquitatis  studio  religiosee  et  profanes 
(of  temples,  games,  edifices,  and  so  forth);  de  polemica  (to  p.  310;  of  recruiting, 
camps,  etc.);  de  historia  (to  p.  313;  lists  of  historians  and  the  division  of  his- 
tory) ;  de  juris prudentia  and  rudimenta  institutionum  juris  (to  p.  341 ) ;  de  medi- 
cina  (to  p.  366). 

2  For  the  purpose  of  comparing  Comenius'  work  with  the  Pcedagogus  of 
Freigius,  we  shall  sketch  the  contents  of  the  Orbis  pictus  (Nuremberg  ed.  of 


26O  THE   RENAISSANCE. 

work,  being  addressed  to  the  learned,  emphasized  less  the  lin- 
guistic purpose.1  It  is  of  interest  to  learn  that  a  man  like  Leib- 
nitz also  entertained  plans  for  compiling  an  encyclopedia.  He 
would  have  followed  the  example  of  Comenius  (whose  under- 
taking he  describes  as  a  "concilium  prceclarum"}  in  beginning 
with  words,  but  unlike  him,  he  would  have  proceeded  from 
words  to  clear-cut  definitions  and  full  logical  treatises.2 

1669).  The  motto  of  the  book  is  taken  from  Gen.  ii,  20:  "Adam  called  all 
the  beasts  by  their  names,  and  all  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  all  the  cattle  of 
the  field."  The  introduction  consists  of  a  dialogue  between  a  teacher  and  his 
pupil,  the  German  translation  being  placed  in  parallel  columns  with  the  Latin 
text:  "Teacher:  Come,  my  boy,  and  learn  to  be  prudent  and  wise.  Pupil: 
What  does  'to  be  wise  and  prudent'  mean?  T. :  To  have  a  right  understanding 
of  all  that  is  needful,  to  act  rightly,  to  speak  rightly.  P.:  Who  will  teach  me 
all  this?  T. :  I  will  do  so  with  the  help  of  God.  P.:  How  will  you  do  it?  T. : 
I  will  show  you  all  things,  and  will  give  a  name  to  every  thing.  P.:  I  am  at 
your  disposal;  lead  me  on  with  the  help  of  God."  This  introduction  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  alphabet,  each  letter  being  assigned  to  a  different  animal,  a  pic- 
ture of  which  is  placed  beside  the  respective  letter.  The  next  150  lessons, 
each  having  at  its  head  a  woodcut,  present  the  things  of  the  world.  Each 
page  contains  three  columns:  the  first  is  the  Latin  column,  all  short  and  simple 
sentences,  but  not  all  words  are  classical  Latin;  the  second  column  is  the  Ger- 
man translation  of  the  Latin  column;  and  the  third  column  contains  the  new 
words  occurring  in  the  lesson.  Lessons  1-34  treat  of  God,  the  earth,  heaven, 
the  elements,  and  natural  history  (dragons,  basilisks,  and  unicorns  are  duly 
included).  Lessons  35-43  treat  anthropological  matters:  of  man,  periods  of 
life,  parts  of  the  body,  and  the  soul;  the  soul  is  represented  by  dots  so  arranged 
as  to  fill  the  whole  outline  of  the  human  body.  Lessons  44-96  treat  of  man's 
activities  and  of  the  products  of  his  labor:  agriculture,  stockraising,  etc;  the 
art  of  writing  and  bookr  are  treated  last.  Lessons  97-108  treat  of  schools, 
museums  (study-rooms/,  rhetoric,  music,  philosophy,  geometry,  astronomy, 
and  geography  (the  maps  of  the  hemispheres  and  of  Europe  are  found  here). 
Lessons  109-117  enumerate  the  virtues.  Lessons  118-121  treat  of  the  family, 
the  genealogical  tree,  of  the  nursery,  and  domestics.  Lessons  122-136  treat 
of  the  city,  courts,  merchants  (weights  and  measures),  medicine,  funerals,  and 
amusements.  Lessons  137-143  treat  of  government,  the  country,  the  kingdom, 
the  most  important  German  principalities,  of  the  army,  and  of  war.  Lessons 
144-148  treat  of  religion:  heathenism,  Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Mohammed- 
anism. The  last  two  lessons  treat  of  Divine  Providence  and  the  Last  Judg- 
ment. The  parting  advice  of  the  teacher  reads:  "Thus  you  have  seen  in  a 
brief  sketch  all  things  that  can  be  created,  and  you  have  learned  the  principal 
German  and  Latin  words;  see  now  that  you  continue  in  the  good  work  and 
read  good  books  so  that  you  may  grow  in  wisdom,  learning,  and  piety.  Re- 
member these  my  words,  fear  the  Lord  and  implore  His  aid  so  that  He  may 
grant  you  the  spirit  of  wisdom.  Farewell.  "  An  index  of  Latin  and  German  words 
is  appended,  with  references  to  the  lessons  where  the  respective  word  occurs. 

1  Cf.  Prodomus  Pansophice  and  Pansophicorum  conatuum  dilucidatio  (Opp. 
did.,  I,  pp.  404  ff.). 

2  Leibnit/  defines   the  encyclopedia   as   "  sy sterna   omnium   quousque  licet 


THE  CONTENT  OF  RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.  26l 

Johann  Joachim  Becher  (died  1685),  the  inimitable  author 
of  the  Methodus  didactica  (Frankfort,  1685),  has  well  described 
the  common  aim  of  all  these  writers:  "The  one  aim  of  the  Janu- 
ists,  Pansophists,  Encyclopedists,  and  Polymathists  is  to  teach 
the  boy  as  quickly  as  possible  the  relation  of  things  to  the  re- 
spective sciences  as  well  as  the  relation  between  the  things 
themselves."  This  aim  appears  to  him  like  "sweet  sugar  for 
them  who  would  have  their  children  made  into  learned  scholars 
by  a  quick  process;"  but  he  finds  fault  with  such  educators 
"for  thus  ignoring  the  necessary  part  of  language. "  He  himself 
arranges  all  words  according  to  three  points  of  view:  affinitate 
derivationis,  according  to  their  derivation;  affinitate  significa- 
tionis^  the  relationship  of  their  meaning;  and  affinitate  -prce- 
dicationis,  the  relationship  of  the  things  signified.  "The  first 
"renders  language  correct;  the  second,  ornate;  and  the  third, 
reasonable."  In  this  distinction  we  recognize  the  respective 
functions  of  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic.  But  Becher's  efforts 
resulted  withal  in  a  mere  thesaurus  of  words.1 

5.  The  tendency  toward  many-sided  erudition  often  devel- 
oped into  a  direct  opposition  to  the  cult  of  Latin,  and  in  the 
beginning  of  the  I7th  century  the  reales  were  opposed  to  the 
verbales.  Fr.  Taubmann,  a  Wittenberg  philologist,  complains 
that  the  reales  call  those  who  use  proper  and  elegant  language 
verbaleS)  as  though  the  former  alone  attended  to  things  and 
realities  and  the  latter  regarded  the  form  only.2  Karl  von 
Raumer  defends  the  verbales  against  the  charge  of  a  finical 
attention  to  words,  yet  accuses  them  of  going  to  books  for  all 

propositionum  verarum,  utitium,  haclcnus  cognitarum."  An  encyclopcediola 
should,  according  to  him,  contain  the  following  three  things:  I.  " Definitiones 
vocabulorum  crebriorum  et  insigniorum  et  ex  his  dedncta  theorcmata  et  problemata 
insignioris  usus,  eaque  in  moralibus  adagio  aliquo  dictoque  sapientum  aut  historia 
memorabiii  vestita  aut  potius  explicata.  2.  Experiments  natures  vulgariora. 
3.  Compendium  historic?  et  geographies  turn  universulis,  turn  imprimis  hodiemce" 
(letter  to  Hasenthaler  in  Feller,  Monumenta  varia  inedita,  Lps.,  1714;  quoted 
in  Monatsschrift  der  Geselhchaft  des  vaterlandischen  Museums  in  Bbhmen,  1828, 

II,  550). 

1  Pedagogy  owes  a  debt  to   Becher,   and  his  educational  principles  and 
methods  should  be  treated  in  a  monograph.     His  services  to  political  economy 
are  treated  in  Erdberg-Krczenciewski's  J.  J.  Becher,  ein  Beitrag  zur  Geschichle 
der  Nationalokonomie,  Jena,  1896.     In  the  history  of  chemistry  he  holds  a  high 
place  as  the  precursor  of  Stahl  and  as  the  author  of  the  phlogiston  theory. 
His  small  book  Psychosophia  oder  Seelenweisheit  (Frankfort,  1683),  to  which 
is  appended  an  outline  sketch  of  a  philosophical  society,  is  important  in  the 
history  of  psychology. 

2  Dissertatio  dc  lingua  Latina,  first  ed.,  1602. 


262  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

knowledge  of  things,  and  hence  calls  their  system  a  "verbal 
realism"  in  opposition  to  the  "real  realism"  taught  by  Bacon 
and  applied  by  the  didacticians,  Ratke,  Comenius,  and  others, 
to  education.1  We  no  longer  regard  Bacon's  realism  as  perfect, 
for  it  was  not  even  in  touch  with  the  discoveries  of  Bacon's 
own  age  in  the  natural  sciences.  Furthermore,  Bacon  failed  to 
recognize  the  value  of  the  experiment  and,  instead,  attached 
too  much  importance  to  simple  observation  of  nature:  amid  his 
generalizations,  he  neglected  to  formulate  laws  based  on  his 
own  experiments.  The  realism  of  the  didacticians  labors  under 
a  similar  defect.  Though  they  would  fathom  the  nature  of 
things,  yet  with  their  attention  taken  up  with  so  many  diversi- 
fied fields,  they  do  not  go  below  the  surface  and  remain  ignorant 
of  the  methods  of  studying  a  single  concrete  thing.  They  are 
also  too  much  taken  up  with  linguistic  matters,  evaluate  too 
highly  the  mere  names  of  things,  and  seek  a  "real"  language 
whose  words  should  have  such  sounds  as  would  convey  the 
nature  of  the  things  signified.2  Because  of  this  view,  it  were 
perhaps  more  in  place  to  style  them  the  "real  verbalists"  in 
opposition  to  the  "verbal  realists."  For  the  genuine  realism 
of  the  Renaissance  we  must  look  elsewhere,  i.  e.,  among  the 
Humanists,  for  they  received  the  fullest  and  purest  influences 
of  antiquity,  and  through  their  contact  with  ancient  art  they 
had  developed  the  sense  of  individual  objectivity  and  the  power 
to  look  at  a  thing  objectively  and  independently  of  subjective 
impressions.  These  happy  traits  were  proper  not  only  to  the 
great  artists  of  the  period,  but  also  to  masters  of  language,  as, 
for  instance,  to  Aeneas  Sylvius,  Pope  Pius  II.,  "the  normal 
man  of  the  early  Renaissance. "  However,  in  this  regard  the 
Humanists  influenced  education,  particularly  the  methods  of 
teaching,  but  little,  and  that  only  indirectly. 

'6.  Both  the  philological  and  the  encyclopedic  elements  of 
education  were  scientific  in  character.  But  in  contrast  to  these 
subjects  there  were  other  branches  of  study  which  were  intended 
to  meet  the  practical  needs  of  the  day,  and  which,  not  being 
connected  with  Latin,  were  held  of  less  value.  Yet  they  were 
important  in  daily  life  and  consequently  cannot  be  ignored  here. 
The  Middle  Ages  had  possessed  some  of  these  popular  studies, 
and  had  in  the  system  of  chivalrous  education  converted  them 

1  Raumer,  Geschichte  der  Padagogik,  I,  p.  330. 

2  Comenius  in  his  Methodus  linguarum  novissima  (Opp.  did.,  II,  pp.  67  ff.). 

3  Cf.  his  characterization  in  Burckhardt,  The  Civilization  of  the  Renaissance 
in  Italy,  transl.  by  Middlemore,  London,  1898,  pp.  303  ff. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  RENAISSANCE  EDUCATION.        263 

into  one  harmonious  whole.  But  the  class-literature  of  that 
period  had  outlived  itself,  and  the  first  step  towards  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  national  literature  had  been  taken  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages  when  Dante's  immortal  work  was  given  to  the 
world.  Owing  to  the  influence  of  the  Humanists,  the  later 
steps  in  this  direction  followed  the  beaten  path  of"  the  ancient 
classics,  and  consequently  the  national  literature  of  the  Ren- 
aissance, though  it  assumed  a  place  in  the  general  culture  of 
the  respective  nations — first  in  Italy  and  last  in  Germany- 
was  not  admitted  into  the  schools.  Before  that  took  place,  the 
schools  felt  the  influence  of  the  systematic  and  grammatical 
study  of  the  national  languages.  Though  Erasmus  could  yet 
boast  his  ignorance  of  all  modern  tongues,  and  though  school 
ordinances  prohibited  the  boys  from  speaking  their  mother- 
tongue,  still  men  of  more  penetrating  minds  perceived  that  a 
general  movement  was  afoot  for  popularizing  the  interest  in 
language  studies.  Agricola  described  the  mother-tongue  as  the 
natural  body  of  all  thought;1  and  Vives  demanded  that  the 
pupils  be  trained  in  the  correct  and  elegant  use  of  the  vernacular, 
and  that  the  old  idioms  of  the  native  tongues  be  preserved  and 
an  cerarium  linguce  be  compiled  for  that  purpose.2  Leading 
Humanists  laid  the  foundation  for  the  grammatical  study  of 
their  respective. mother-tongues;  Antonius  of  Lebrija  (1492)  is 
the  father  of  Castilian  grammar;  Pietro  Bembo  (1525),  of  Tus- 
can grammar;  Robert  Etienne  (1557),  of  French;  and  Janus 
Pannonius  (1465),  of  Hungarian.  Practical  needs  soon  gave 
rise  to  rules  for  spelling  the  modern  languages,  and  these  rules 
gradually  crept  into  the  Latin  grammars,  where  they  were  at 
first  regarded  as  necessary  evils.  To  speak  and  write  the  ver- 
nacular with  a  certain  degree  of  correctness,  was  considered  in 
Latin  Europe  an  essential  accomplishment  of  the  cultured,  and 
this  at  a  time  when  the  macaronic  style  of  Latin-German  writ- 
ing was  in  vogue  in  Germany,  i.  e.,  in  the  i6th  century.  It  is, 
however,  the  glory  of  the  German  didacticians,  notably  of 
Ratke,  to  have  established  German  as  the  elementary  subject 
for  training  the  language  sense,  and  following  their  initiative, 
Comenius  made  the  mother-tongue  the  starting-point  arid  the 
core  of  all  grammar  studies.  German  language  exercises  came 
into  general  use  with  the  teaching  of  letter-writing,  since  the 
Rococo  style  of  the  iyth  century  necessitated  elaborate  prepa- 


1  Raumer,  1.  c.,  p.  87. 

2  De  discipl.  trad.,  L.  Ill  in.,  pp.  268  ff. 


264  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

ration  for  the  writing  of  fashionable  letters.  The  "science  of 
titles"  was  concerned  exclusively  with  the  proper  addresses  and 
titles,  and  learned  men  wrote  manuals  of  correspondence.1 

Of  modern  languages,,  French  came  to  be  considered,  espe- 
cially in  Germany,  essential  to  a  liberal  education.  Modern 
history  and  geography  were  studied  because  necessary  for  be- 
coming acquainted  with  the  modern  world.  A  special  class  of 
books  dealt  with  the  educational  value  of  traveling.2  These 
modern  subjects  received  little  attention  in"  the  schools,  but 
among  the  cultured  the  distinction  between  scientific  studies 
and  the  accomplishments  of  the  gentleman  was  very  marked. 
Even  in  the  early  Italian  Renaissance  the  culture  of  the  "Cor- 
tigiano"  differed  much  from  that  of  the  "poet,"  though  both 
aimed  at  virtuosity  and  regarded  the  ancient  classics  as  the 
chief  content  of  education.*  Mere  Latinity  could  never  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  cavalier,  and  the  intellectual  content  of 
modern  culture  was  too  rich  and  varied  to  be  perfectly  amal- 
gamated with  the  classical  studies. 

Thus  the  Renaissance  observed  the  divergency  between  the 
schools  and  life,  and  the  need  of  educational  reforms  was  even 
then  recognized.  Though  the  subject  of  the  delatinization  of 
the  higher  schools  was  not  yet  broached,  voices  were  beginning 
to  make  themselves  heard  that  the  cultural  value  of  Latin  was 
overestimated,  and  that  true  progress  could  be  attained  only 
by  breaking  away  from  the  antiquated  standards.  Scholars  and 
thinkers  frequently  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  ancients, 
who  lacked  the  centuried  experience  of  the  moderns,  were  in 
reality  young  in  wisdom,  while  the  moderns  were  old  in  expe- 

1  Riehl,  Kulturstudien,  Stuttgart,  1859,  pp.  22  ff. 

2  The  art  of  traveling  was  known  by  the  musical  name,  ars  apodemica,  and 
many  books  were  written  on  the  subject;  cf.  Traveling  as  Education  in  Cyclo- 
pedia of  Education.     Even  Justus  Lipsius  wrote  an  Epistola  de  nobili  et  erudita 
peregrinatione. 

3  Burckhardt   (I.e.,  p.  389)   sketches  the   ideal   "Cortigiano"   thus:  "He 
must  be  at  home  in  all  noble  sports,  among  them  running,  leaping,  swimming, 
and  wrestling;  he  must,  above  all  things,  be  a  good  dancer  and,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  an  accomplished  writer.     He  must  be  master  of  several  modern 
languages,  at  all  events  of  Latin  and  Italian;  he  must  be  familiar  with  liter- 
ature and  have  some  knowledge  of  the  fine  arts.     In  music  a  certain  practical 
skill  was  expected  of  him,  which  he  was  bound,  nevertheless,  to  keep  as  secret 
as  possible.     All  this  is  to  be  taken  not  too  seriously,  except  what  relates  to 
the  use  of  arms.     The  mutual  interaction  of  these  gifts  and  accomplishments 
results  in  the  perfect  man,  in  whom  no  one  quality  usurps  the  place  of  the 
rest." 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.       265 

rience.1  Among  the  aesthetes,  Perrault  was  the  first  to  raise  the 
question,  in  his  Le  paralelle  des  anciens  et  des  modernes  (4  vols., 
1688-1696),  whether  the  modern  poets  were  not  superior  to  the 
ancient;  and  the  disputes  that  ensued  reacted  on  the  schools, 
although  the  latter  were  slow  in  readjusting  their  curricula  to 
the  new  standards. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
The  Educational  Institutions  of  the  Renaissance. 

i.  The  schools  and  educational  institutions  of  the  Renais- 
sance were  either  of  the  traditional  medieval  type,  or  new  cre- 
ations. The  circles  and  societies  of  the  Humanists,  whose  aim 
was  the  furthering  of  the  new  learning,  were  the  most  important 
of  the  new  departures  in  education.  The  circle  of  scholars — 
among  them  the  learned  Luigi  Marsigli  and  the  statesman 
Collucio  Salutato — who  met  at  the  Augustinian  Monastery  San 
Spirito  near  Florence,  belongs  to  the  i4th  century.  Greater 
influence  was  exerted  by  the  Court  of  the  Muses  of  Cosimo 
de'  Medici,  who  employed  the  tireless  collector,  Niccolo  Niccoli, 
as  his  "literary  minister."  The  next  generation  of  Florentines 
founded,  on  the  suggestion  of  the  Greek  Gemistos  Plethon,  the 
Platonic  Academy  (1474);  and  Marsiglio  Ficino,  Pico  of  Miran- 
dola,  and  Angelo  Poliziano  made  it  famous  throughout  Europe. 
In  Rome  the  Humanists  gathered  about  Nicholas  V.,  Pius  II., 
and  Leo  X.,  and  in  1498  Pomponius  Lsetus  founded  the  "Aca- 
demia  Antiquaria. "  The  "Sodalitas  Rhenana"  at  Worms  and 
the  "Sodalitas  Danubiana"  at  Vienna,  both  founded  in  1490 
by  Conrad  Celtes,  were  German  imitations  of  the  Italian  Aca- 
demies. 

Societies  for  cultivating  one  or  several  educational  subjects 
continued  to  be  organized  until  the  end  of  the  period.  The 
Italian  Academies  took  up  the  study  of  the  vernacular  only 
towards  the  end  of  the  i6th  century,  and  their  example  was 
followed  in  the  iyth  century  by  several  German  orders  and 
societies,  who  gave  some  attention  to  the  schools  also.  Louis  of 

1  Bacon,  Nov.  org.,  §  84;  Jord.  Bruno,  Cena  delle  cen.,  p.  132  (Erdmann, 
1.  c.,  I,  p.  562).  Descartes  says:  " Non  est  quod  antiquis  multum  tribuamus 
propter  antiquitatem,  sed  nos  potius  Us  antiqiiiores  dicendi;  jam  enim  senior  est 
mundus  quam  tune,  majoremque  habemus  rerum  experientiam. "  (Baillet,  Vie  de 
Descartes,  VIII,  10.) 


266  THE   RENAISSANCE. 

Anhalt-Kothen,  the  founder  of  the  Order  of  the  Palm  Tree, 
invited  Ratke  to  open  a  model  school  in  the  capital  of  his  coun- 
try. A  private  literary  club  was  the  beginning  of  the  French 
Academy,  which  Cardinal  Richelieu  converted  in  1635  into  a 
national  institution,  and  which  subsequently  exerted  so  powerful 
an  influence  on  the  development  of  French  letters.  The  Italian 
Academies  were  also  the  pioneers  in  the  study  of  the  natural 
sciences.  The  Academia  secretorum  natures,  founded  in  1560 
in  Naples,  was  the  first  to  take  up  this  subject,  and  the  Royal 
Society  of  London,  founded  in  1645,  was  patterned  after  it. 
Vives  defined  the  Academy  as  an  institution  encouraging  the 
study  of  both  young  and  old  and  as  a  "  convenfus  et  consensus 
hominum  doctorum  pariter  et  bonorum. "  Comenius  demanded  a 
" collegium  didacticum,"  or  " schola  scholarum^"  as  the  capstone 
of  the  whole  school  system;2  and  Bacon  described  the  inter- 
national co-operation  of  all  the  learned  societies  of  Europe— 
whose  work  was  to  be  patterned  after  that  of  the  religious  or- 
ders, especially  the  Jesuits — as  one  of  his  fondest  dreams,  though 
he  admitted  that  it  could  not  be  realized  in  his  own  day.3 

In  his  Societas  philadelphica,  one  of  his  early  works,  Leibnitz 
also  sketched  a  plan  for  a  cosmopolitan  society  of  scholars  to  be 
patterned  after  the  Society  of  Jesus.4  Later  he  modified  his 
original  design  considerably,  though  its  main  features  were  pre- 
served in  the  Academies  he  planned  for  Berlin,  Dresden,  Vienna, 
and  St.  Petersburg,  but  which  he  realized  only  in  Berlin. 

2.  Of  the  older  schools,  the  universities  were  the  first  to 
welcome  the  new  learning.  They  adopted  the  policy  suggested 
by  Erasmus:  "The  study  of  polite  literature  should  be  intro- 
duced into  the  higher  schools  only  gradually  so  as  to  cause  as 
little  stir  as  possible.  The  new  learning  should  present  itself 


1  De  trad,  die.,  II,  p.  250. 

2  Did.  magn.y  31,  15;  see  supra,  Introduction,  II,  8. 

3  De  augm.  scient.,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1695,  p.  117:  " Sunt  enim,  uti  videmus,  multi 
ordines  et  sodalitia,  quce  licet  regnis  et  spatiis  longinq-uius  disjuncta  sint,  tamen 
societatcm  et  tanquam  fraternitatem  inter  se  ineunt  et  colunt,  adeo  ut  habeant 
prcefectos,  alios  provinciates,  alias  generales,  quibus  omnes  parent. " 

4  Biedermann,   Kulturgeschichte  des  18.   Jahrhunderls,   II,  p.   235:    "It  is 
obvious,  and  Leibnitz  acknowledges  it  openly,  that  he  had  in  mind  the  mag- 
nificent example  of  the  Jesuits.     His  dream  was  an  order  of  the  scholars  of 
the  entire  world,  who,  being  inspired  by  a  deep  love  for  science  and  learning, 
were  to  direct  not  only  the  scientific  work,  but  all  the  affairs  of  the  individual 
state  as  well  as  of  the  whole  world.  The  members  of  this  order  were  to  fill  all 
important  offices,  were  to  control  the  trades  and  industries  no  less  than  the 
schools,  to  establish  colonies,  and  so  forth. " 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.       267 

not  as  an  enemy  that  tramples  upon  all  that  was  previously 
taught  in  the  schools;  instead,  it  should  come  as  a  friendly 
caller,  and  then  it  will  be  urged  to  make  a  longer  stay,  until  it, 
welcomed  at  first  as  a  guest,  is  considered  a  member  of  the 
family."  The  Italian  universities  were  the  first  homes  of  Hu- 
manism, and  even  the  poorest  and  smallest,  though  they  had 
only  three  professorships  (of  canon  and  civil  law  and  physics), 
added  a  fourth,  of  rhetoric.  Only  in  Rome  the  old  and  the 
new  learning  continued  to  be  taught  independently  of  each 
other  till  Leo  X.  reorganized  the  Sapienza  and  founded  88  pro- 
fessorships. Of  the  German  universities,  Heidelberg  and  Vienna 
were  the  first  to  receive  the  new  studies,  but  they  were  soon 
followed  by  Erfurt  and  Leipzig.  Many  of  the  new  universities, 
as  Tubingen,  Wittenberg,  and  the  universities  of  the  North, 
had  no  difficulties  in  throwing  open  their  doors  to  the  new 
learning,  for  they  had  no  scholastic  traditions  in  this  regard. 
The  University  of  Paris  frowned  upon  the  Humanistic  move- 
ment, and  hence  Francis  I.  founded  in  1529  the  College  de 
France  for  the  study  of  the  classics.  By  the  second  decade  of 
the  1 6th  century  courses  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics  were 
given  in  all  the  universities. 

In  Italy  the  Humanistic  studies  were  first  taken  up,  by  the 
private  tutors  of  the  nobility  and  only  later  were  they  introduced 
into  the  schools.  The  Carraras  of  Padua  employed,  since  1390,  the 
services  of  Pier  Paolo  Vergerio;  the  Estes  of  Ferrara  employed, 
since  1429,  the  services  of  Guarino  the  Elder;  and  the  Gonzagas 
of  Mantua  had  as  tutor,  since  1425,  Vittorino  Ramboldini,  known 
as  Da  Feltre.  Da  Feltre's  pupils  were  recruited  from  all  classes, 
and  his  school,  the  casa  giojosa^  was  during  the  twenty-two 
years  of  his  mastership  favorably  known  throughout  Europe. 
In  Germany,  however,  the  schools,  and  not  home  education  led 
the  way  in  the  new  learning.  The  Brothers  of  the  Common 
Life  of  Northwestern  Germany  were  its  first  patrons:  John 
Wessel  (1489)  reformed  the  school  in  Advert;,  and  Alexander 
Hegius  (died  c.  1503),  that  in  Deventer.  Of  the  cathedral 
schools,  the  school  in  Miinster,  reorganized  by  Rudolf  von 
Lange  (died  1519),  provost  of  the  cathedral,  and  the  school  in 
Osnabriick,  reorganized  by  Alexander  of  Meppen,  followed  the 
new  movement.  The  city  school  of  Schlettstadt  (Alsatia),  or- 
ganized in  1450  by  Ludwig  of  Dringenburg,  was  celebrated  far 
and  wide  for  the  thoroughness  of  its  course. 

But  the  organization  of  the  school  system  as  a  whole  was 
undertaken  in  Germany  and  in  other  countries  only  after  the 


268  THE   RENAISSANCE. 

Reformation  had  divided  the  great  body  of  Christians,  for  at 
that  critical  time  the  religious  needs  of  the  different  denomi- 
nations intensified  all  other  incentives  to  learning.  It  was  con- 
sidered a  sacred  duty  to  provide  primarily  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  religious  beliefs  among  the  young.  But  the  latter  could 
not  give  a  reasonable  account  of  the  faith  they  professed 
unless  they  were  at  home  in  the  secular  learning  of  the  day. 
In  the  Protestant  countries  the  respective  ruler  or  the  municipal 
government  generally  founded  Latin  schools,  and  endowed  them 
with  the  funds  obtained  in  most  cases  from  suppressed  and 
confiscated  monasteries.  The  organization  of  these  Protestant 
schools  presents  a  great  variety,  owing  partly  to  local  conditions 
and  partly  to  the  individuality  of  capable  masters.  Many  of 
the  1 6th  century  masters  had  a  gift  for  organizing  schools,  and 
the  Evangelical  school  ordinances  (Evangelische  Schulordnungen, 
ed.  by  Vormbaum,  Giitersloh,  1860,  vol.  I.)  are  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  the  zeal  and  the  ingenuity  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Prot- 
estant schools.  The  uniformity  of  educational  methods  was  due 
to  the  common  principles  underlying  the  new  foundations,  as 
well  as  to  the  influence  of  certain  educational  institutions  and 
leaders.  Wittenberg  became  the  chief  training  school  for  the 
masters,  and  teachers  of  the  German  Lutheran  schools,  and 
Melanchthon,  to  whom  Protestant  education  owes  much,  was 
hailed  by  his  partizans  as  the  Prceceptor  Germania.1  The 
Strassburg  school  of  John  Sturm  was  considered  the  model 
school  of  the  West,  and  Trotzendorf's  school  at  Goldberg  en- 
joyed a  similar  prestige  among  the  schools  of  the  East.  The 
University  of  Prague  was  the  intellectual  stronghold  of  the 
Utraquists  of  Bohemia.2  All  these  schools  fitted  their  students 
for  the  learned  professions,  especially  the  ministry.  The  prepa- 
ration for  the  profession  of  theology  was  stressed  among  the 
Lutherans,  while  the  Reformed  Churches  attended  more  to  the 
fitting  for  public  life.  The  history  of  the  Protestant  schools 
presents  some  iuteresting  types  of  capable  teachers;  for  instance, 
Neander,  whose  sprightly  humor  is  reflected  in  his  libri  schu- 
sfrica/es,  and  who  wielded  an  influence  in  Northwestern  Ger- 
many akin  to  that  of  the  indefatigable  Trotzendorf  in  the  East. 

1  Cf.  Richard,  J.  W.,  Philip  Melanchthon,  the  Protestant  Preceptor  of  Ger- 
many, New  York,  1898. 

2  The  organization  of  the  schools  of  the  Utraquists  is  described  in  the 
work,  Ordo  studiorum  docendi  aique  discendi  litteras  in  scholis  civitatum  regni 
Boemice  et  Marchionatus  Moravice  constitutus  ah  Universitate  Pragensi  Pragce, 
Weleslavin,  1586. 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.       269 

3.  Compared  with  the  Protestant  schools,  the  Catholic  school 
system  of  the  Renaissance  appears  more  uniform  and  less  indi- 
vidualized. But  with  the  teaching  orders  in  charge  of  the 
Catholic  schools,  the  genius  of  an  individual  teacher  would 
never  stand  out  so  prominently  in  the  history  of  education,  as 
would  be  the  case  if  he  had  been  independent  of  a  teaching 
community.  The  organization  of  the  schools  was  based  on 
programs  of  study  that  were  intended  for  different  countries 
in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  which  were  the  outcome  of 
long  and  serious  deliberation;  and  it  was  natural  that,  once  the 
curriculum  had  received  ecclesiastical  approbation,  it  would  be 
strictly  and  tenaciously  adhered  to.  Only  after  a  period  of 
thirty  years'  experimentation  was  the  Ratio  atque  institutio 
studiorum  Societatis  Jesu  formulated  by  a  commission  of  Jesuits 
of  different  nationalities,  sitting  from  1584-1588,  and  was  then 
sent  out  on  approval  to  the  various  provinces  of  the  Order. 
After  having  been  thus  tried  out,  it  was  made  the  subject  of  a 
general  discussion  at  a  General  Chapter,  revised  again,  and  only 
then  published  in  its  final  and  definitive  form.  This  Ratio 
studiorum  was  the  basis  for  the  whole  Catholic  school  system 
of  the  period,  not  merely  by  reason  of  the  large  number  of  schools 
actually  in  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits,  but  also  because  the  edu- 
cational methods  of  the  latter  were  copied  quite  generally,  not 
only  by  the  friends,  .but  also  by  the  enemies,  of 'the  Society. 

The  most  important  of  the  educational  writings  of  the  Jesuits 
have  been  published  within  the  last  decades,  and  from  them  we 
can  get  a  good  view  of  the  inner  working  -of  the  Jesuit  schools.1 
Fr.  Paulsen  has  given,  in  his  history  of  higher  education,  an 
impartial  account  of  the  Jesuit  schools,  and  has  praised  the 
Jesuits  particularly  for  being  the  pioneers  in  the  systematic 
training  of  teachers.2  Some  of  the  Jesuit  educators  were  un- 

1  Pachtler,  G.  M.,  S.J.,  Ratio  studiorum  et  institutiones  scholastics  Societatis 
Jesu  per  Germanium  olim  vigentes,  Vols.  II,  V,  IX,  and  XVI,  of  Kehrbach's 
Monumenta  Germanice  Pcedagogica  (Berlin,  1887  ff.);  Schwickerath,  R.,  S.J., 
Jesuit  Education,  its  History  and  Principles,  St.  Louis,  1903;  Bibliothek  der 
katholischen  Padagogik,  Vols.  X  and  XI  (Freiburg,  1889  and  1901);  s.  v.  Jesuits 
in  Cyclopedia  of  Education. 

2  Geschichte  des  gelehrten   Unterrichts,  2nd  ed.,  I,  p.   388    (Leipzig,   1886- 
1887):  "The  colleges  are,  then,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  first  normal  schools  for 
gymnasium  teachers:  the  teaching  of  methods  was  an  important  duty  of  the 
prefect  of  studies.     This  practice  is  probably  responsible  for  the  excellence  of 
the  Jesuit  schools.     In  the  Protestant  countries  the  necessity  of  training  the 
teachers  was  recognized  only  in  the  i8th  century,  when  the  philological  semi- 
nars were  established  for  this  purpose. " 


27O  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

doubtedly  of  marked  individuality.  Francesco  Sacchini  was  born 
1570  in  Paciano,  in  Umbria,  and  began  his  studies  with  the 
boldness  of  a  self-taught  man,  who  would  "swim  without  a 
life-preserver;"  but  experience  soon  taught  him  that  "reading 
is  for  the  mind  what  food  is  for  the  body."  Antonio  Possevini,1 
born  1534  in  Mantua,  was  equally  successful  as  a  founder  of 
schools  and  as  a  diplomat;  his  Bibliotheca  se/ecta,  qua  agitur  de 
ratione  studiorum  in  historia,  disciplinis  et  salute  omnia  pro- 
curanda  (Rome,  1593)  proves  him  an  eminent  polyhistorian. 

A  considerable  number  of  schools  were  in  the  hands  of  other 
religious  orders,  and  the  secular  clergy  as  well  as  laymen  con- 
trolled many  schools.  Some  of  the  old  Benedictine  schools 
witnessed  a  revival  in  the  i6th  century,  as,  Monte  Cassino, 
Kremsmiinster,  Maria  Einsiedeln,  and  others.  The  French  sem- 
inaries of  the  Maurists  were  celebrated  seats  of  learning.  The 
Franciscans  organized  the  school  system  of  the  New  World. 
The  Theatines,2  founded  in  1524,  and  the  Barnabites,  founded 
in  1535,  labored  in  Latin  Europe,  while  the  Hieronymites, 
known  as  Fratres  Scholastici,  conducted  schools  in  Germany 
till  late  in  the  i6th  century.  The  Piarists,  founded  in  1617, 
gained  a  firm  foothold  in  Italy,  Spain,  Poland,  and  Austria. 
The  French  colleges  of  the  Oratorians,  first  opened  in  1611, 
were  well  attended.  The  older  universities  and  their  affiliated 
schools — for  instance,  the  colleges  of  the  University  of  Paris, 
which  were  of  the  same  rank  as  the  Latin  schools — remained 
under  the  control  of  the  secular  authorities. 

4.  The  Latin  school  of  the  Renaissance  differed  from  the 
present-day  German  gymnasium  in  that  its  scope  was  not  de- 
termined exactly;  the  work  of  the  elementary  school  was  not 
adjusted  to  that  of  the  Latin  school,  nor  was  the  curriculum 
of  the  latter  adjusted  to  the  graduate  schools  of  the  univer- 
sity. The  Gymnasia  academics,  or  illustria,  known  also  as 
Lycea,  or  Athenaea,  were  very  numerous  in  the  I7th  cen- 
tury in  Germany,  Holland,  and  other  countries,  and  frequently 
offered  regular  courses  of  university  lectures.  The  several  pro- 
fessors were,  as  in  the  universities,  eligible  to  the  rectorship; 
and  these  schools  could  confer  the  baccalaureate,  but  not 
the  doctorate.  Many  gymnasiums  developed  into  universities: 

1  Cf.  supra,  p.  250. 

2  Bateus,  an  Irish  Theatine  monk,  was  the  first  to  suggest  a  Janua  Lhiguce 
to  aid  the  missionaries  in  educating  the  heathen  children;  his  idea  was  carried 
out  by  the  Jesuits  of  Salamanca  College,  and  finally  led  up  to  the  Mercurius 
of  Schoppe  and  the  Qrbis  pictus  of  Comenius. 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.       271 

the  Nuremberg  Gymnasium  was  converted,  in  1575,  into  the 
Altorf  University;  the  Gandersheim  Gymnasium,  in  1576,  into 
the  University  of  Helmstedt;  and  the  school  of  Sturm  was 
known  after  1621  as  the  Strassburg  Academy.  The  colleges  of 
the  Jesuits  likewise  introduced  university  studies;  the  so-called 
collegium  supremum  was  in  reality  a  studium  generate,  i.  e.y 
a  university  with  four  faculties,  whose  chairs  in  the  schools 
of  law  and  medicine  could,  however,  be  occupied  by  laymen. 
The  collegium  medium  comprised  the  five  scholce  inferiores  (stu- 
dia  inferiora}  and  philosophies  cursus  triennales  (studia  supe- 
riora),  while  the  collegium  infimum  confined  itself  to  the  stu- 
dia inferiora.  The  latter  was  a  preparatory  school  for  the 
course  in  philosophy,  and  was'  of  the  same  rank  as  the  Latin 
school.  Thus  the  medieval  view  of  the  arts'  course  being  pre- 
paratory to  the  study  of  philosophy  was  still  upheld  in  the 
Jesuit  system  of  education.  The  schools  of  the  religious  orders 
always  had  at  least  five  classes.  In  the  Jesuit  schools  these 
classes  were  known  by  the  following  names:  rudimentum  or 
grammatica  infima,  grammatica  media,  grammatica  suprema,  hu- 
manitas,  and  rhetorica;  a  sixth  class  was  organized  by  distribut- 
ing the  work  of  the  lowest  class  over  two  years. 

The  Latin  school  of  five  or  six  classes  was  the  prevailing 
type  in  the  Protestant  countries  also,  though  there  were  many 
exceptions  to  the  general  rule:  Sturm's  school  had  ten  classes; 
and  many  city  schools,  only  four  or  three.  These  incomplete 
Latin  schools  were  also  called  padagogia,  "trivial  schools," 
or  "particular  schools."  The  term  "gymnasium,"  as  used  in 
the  Renaissance,  did  not  denote  a  special  kind  of  school,  but 
rather  designated  any  higher  school.  The  primitive  meaning 
of  gymnasium — an  institution  for  intellectual  gymnastics — was 
at  that  time  more  in  evidence  than  in  the  present  German  use 
of  the  term.1 

1  In  a  comedy  by  Bebel,  written  in  1501  and  treating  of  the  best  methods 
of  instruction,  a  farmer  takes  his  boy  to  a  gymnasium  universal*,  ut  did  solet. 
Wimpheling  makes  a  distinction,  in  his  treatise  De  proba  institutione  puero- 
rum  (1514),  between  the  gymnasia  trivilia  for  boys  and  the  gymnasia  universa- 
lia  for  youths.  The  Ratio  atque  inst.  stud.  S.  J.  (Prov.  3)  says:  '"Quod  si  ob 
gymnasii  amplitudinem  ac  varietatem  per  unum  studiorum  pratfectum  non  videatur 
3cholarum  omnium  rationibus  satis  esse  c-onsultum,  alterum  constituat,  qui  ex , 
generalis  prcefecti  prcescripto  inferior! bus  studiis  moderetur;"  consequently,  the 
gymnasium  included  both  the  studia  superiora  and  the  studia  inferiora.  The 
Roman  University  Sapienza  was  also  known  as  an  archigymnasium.  Luther 
had  in  mind  the  form  of  a  school  of  gymnastics  for  the  Christian  mind,  when 
he  wrote  to  Spalatin  in  1521:  "Supra  meas  vires  est,  quod  petis,  ul  gymnasii 
christiani  formam  unus  prtescribam. " 


272  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

We  have  seen  above  that  the  scope  of  the  Latin  schools 
often  overlapped  with  that  of  the  universities,  and,  similarly, 
many  elementary  schools  in  the  cities  encroached  upon  the 
curriculum  of  the  middle  schools  by  teaching  the  rudiments  of 
Latin.  The  elementary  school  of  the  Renaissance  resembled 
the  elementary  school  of  the  Middle  Ages  (see  supra,  ch.  xviii,  4) 
in  that  it  lacked  a  definite  aim  and  scope.  Primary  instruction 
was  regarded  also  in  Protestant  countries  as  part  of  the  cure 
of  souls,  and  was  generally  entrusted  to  the  sexton.  In  fact, 
most  of  the  rural  schools  of  the  i6th  and  I7th  centuries  were, 
as  had  been  the  case  in  the  Middle  Ages,  sexton's  schools.  Pop- 
ular education  was  benefited  only  indirectly  by  the  efforts  of  the 
Humanists.  Yet  the  case  of  the  Duke  Ulric's  closing,  in  1546, 
the  German  schools  of  Wiirttemberg  to  prevent  them  from 
interfering  with  the  activity  of  the  Latin  schools,  stands  alone, 
and  is  not  indicative  of  general  conditions;  for  the  interest  in 
the  new  learning  promoted  the  cause  of  popular  education  in 
many,  even  if  only  indirect,  ways.  It  is  known  that  elementary 
schools  were  opened  when  the  funds  that  had  been  collected  did 
not  suffice  for  establishing  a  higher  school,  and  it  was  considered 
a  matter  of  simple  prudence  to  aid  the  rural  schools  so  as  to 
insure  a  large  attendance  at  the  Latin  schools  in  the  cities. 
The  Humanists  had  inaugurated  the  grammatical  study  of  mod- 
ern languages,  and  after  the  grammar  of  the  mother-tongue  had 
been  added  to  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  school,  the 
view  gained  ground  that  the  mother-tongue  was  the  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  the  elementary  school  just  as  Latin  characterized 
the  higher  school,  and  that,  furthermore,  the  schola  vernacula 
must,  though  lower  in  rank,  be  recognized  beside  the  schola 
Latina  —  a  view  that  we  find  upheld  by  Comenius.  The  reli- 
gious upheaval  likewise  brought  about  new  elementary  school 
methods.  The  catechism,  treating  the  doctrines  of  Faith  in  the 
form  of  questions  and  answers,  dates  from  the  i6th  century.1 
The  following  catechisms  were  used  most  widely  in  the  schools: 
tKe  smaller  catechism  of  Luther  (1529),  the  Heidelberg  cate- 
chism, and  the  Catechismus  parvus  of  P.  Canisius  (1563).  The 
Bible  was  read  in  the  Protestant  schools;  its  popularity  en- 
couraged the  masses  to  learn  to  read  and  write,  and  the  famili- 
arity with  the  sacred  text  improved  and  enriched  the  common 

1  In  the  Middle  Ages  catechism  denoted  only  religious  instruction  irre- 
spective of  its  form.  For  the  history  of  the  chief  catechisms  see  Gatterer-Krus, 
The  Theory  and  Practice  of  the  Catechism,  transl.  by  Culemans,  New  York, 
1914,  pp.  49  ff. 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.       2/3 

speech  of  the  people.  But  it  is  not  true  that  the  Protestant 
'translations  of  the  Bible  are  responsible  for  popular  education: 
in  Scotland  the  new  religion  carried  book  and  pen  into  every 
hut,  but  in  England  it  destroyed  the  old  parochial  schools, 
without  supplying  a  substitute  for  them. 

5.  There  is  a  tendency  throughout  the  entire  history  of 
Renaissance  education  to  push  to  the  foreground  a  factor  that 
had  remained  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  the  background — the  State. 
The  schools  themselves  prepared  the  way  for  the  State-control 
of  education,  for  the,  Roman  law  schools  of  the  universities,  the 
ordines  legistarum  had  never  ceased  to  teach  the  doctrine  of 
the  all-powerful  State.  The  religious  conflicts  hastened  the  day 
of  the  State-control  of  the  schools,  and  in  the  i6th  century 
different  governments  issued  school  ordinances,  which  policy 
was  the  beginning  of  the  secularization  of  the  schools.  Prot- 
estant governments  considered  the  control  of  the  church  and 
the  church  schools  as  wholly  within  their  province:  Luther 
himself  gave  the  initiative  when  he  requested  his  sovereign  to 
take  ovef  the  schools  of  the  country,1  and  his  collaborators 
regarded  themselves  as  state  officials.  The  Saxon  school  or- 
dinances, written  by  Melanchthon,  were  the  first  to  be  pub- 
lished (1528);  they  were  followed  in  the  same  year  by  Bugen- 
hagen's  ordinances  for  Brunswick,  and  a  year  later  by  the  Ham- 
burg ordinances.  The  Wiirttemberg  ordinances  of  1559,  which 
were  more  detailed  than  those  just  mentioned,  proved  of  great 
importance  for  after  times,  and  were  the  basis  of  the  Saxon  or- 
dinances of  1580.  The  Latin  city  schools  of  Denmark  were 
subjected  to  government  control  in  1537,  and  those  of  Sweden, 
in  1571;  the  English  schools  alone  remained  independent  of 
the  State. 

In  the  Catholic  countries,  the  schools  remained,  for  the  most 
part,  under  the  control  of  the  Church.  The  cathedral  schools 
were  changed,  in  accordance  with  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  into  training  schools  for  the  candidates  to  the  priesthood 
(Tridentine  seminaries).  The  old  monastic  schools  became  train- 


1  Luther  wrote,  May  20,  1530,  to  the  Elector  John  of  Saxony:  "The  youth 
of  your  country  is,  indeed,  a  veritable  paradise  such  as  is  found  in  no  other 
country  of  the  earth,  and  the  good  Lord  has,  in  proof  of  His  grace  and  bounty, 
committed  this  smiling  paradise  to  your  care,  as  though  He  would  say,  'Here- 
with I  commend  to  thee,  my  dear  Duke  John,  my  dearest  treasure,  and  thou 
art  to  prove  a  loving  father  to  it.  It  is  to  thy  care  and  protection  that  I  com- 
mend my  paradise,  and  it  shall  be  an  honor  to  thee  to  be  its  gardener'."  Baur 
in  Schmid's  Enzyklopadie,  V,  p.  769. 
18 


274  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

ing  schools  for  the  young  members  of  the  religious  orders.  The 
teaching  orders  controlled  most  of  the  universities  and  colleges 
as  well  as  schools  for  girls  (Ursulines)  and  poor  boys  (Piarists), 
while  the  bishops  and  synods  provided  parochial  elementary 
schools.1  However,  the  Church  required  and  welcomed  State 
aid  for  her  schools,  because  the  storms  of  the  Reformation  had 
impoverished  her  in  many  places  and  had  also  weakened  her 
influence:  hence  the  school  ordinances  issued  by  some  Catholic 
governments,  for  example,  those  of  Duke  Albert  for  Upper  and 
Lower  Bavaria  (1564).  The  doctrine  of  the  secularization  of 
the  schools  was  first  taught  in  France,  where  the  government 
had  even  in  the  Middle  Ages  exerted  through  the  University 
considerable  influence  on  education.  This  doctrine  found  ready 
acceptance  among  a  people  bent  on  enlarging  the  scope  of  the 
Gallican  liberties:  France  was  quite  eager  to  deny  the- Pope  the 
regimen  scholarum^  and  the  political  economists  had  only  to 
recall  the  conditions  in  ancient  Rome  to  find  further  arguments 
for  extending  the  power  of  the  secular  rulers.  "The  King," 
says  Servin,  "is  the  first  and  chief  founder  of  all  schools;  the 
University  is  beholden  to  him  for  its  dignity,  and  he  possesses 
full  power  to  regulate  its  studies.  This  is  the  principal  pre- 
rogative of  his  royal  power.  In  all  that  pertains  to  the  studies, 
the  rector  is  but  the  representative  of  the  King;  for  the  King, 
as  the  Imperafor,  has  all  imperial  rights.  He  is,  as  Constantine 
the  Great  styled  himself,  the  episcopus  exteriorum."  The 
universities,  however,  retained  their  corporate  rights  until  the 
Revolution. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
The  Renaissance  in  the  Different  Countries. 

i.  The  Middle  Ages  had  united  the  Christian  peoples  of 
Europe  in  a  confederacy  of  culture,  and  this  circumstance  ac- 
counts for  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  the  new  learning  was 
not  confined  to  .one  country,  but  was  felt  throughout  Europe. 
The  culture  of  knighthood  and  the  learning  of  the  Scholastics 
had  also  been  common  property,  and  the  national  variations  of 
them  were  but  slight,  although  the  several  peoples  had  not 
contributed  to  them  to  the  same  extent.  In  contrast  to  this, 

1  Stockl,  Geschichte  der  Padagogik,  1876,  pp.  231  ff. 

2  L.  Hahn,  Das  Unterrichtswesen  in  Frankreich,  Breslau,  1848,  pp.  70  ff. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  THE  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.  275 

Humanistic  education  appears  both  general  and  nationally  dif- 
ferentiated. The  Renaissance  was  undoubtedly  broadly  Euro- 
pean in  character,  still  it  gave  free  scope  to  national  motives; 
yes,  through  its  deep  influence  it  has  developed  that  national 
consciousness  of  the  different  peoples  which  prompts  the  peoples 
of  modern  Europe  to  regard  one  another  as  individual  members 
of  a  higher  order.  The  Humanistic  studies  produced  different 
results  in  Italy,  in  France,  in  England,  and  in  Germany. 

Italy  could  point  to  the  most  glorious  remains  of  the  great- 
ness of  ancient  Rome,  and  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the 
ancient  traditions  had  here  shown  more  vitality  than  elsewhere. 
The  names  of  public  offices  were  those  of  ancient  Rome;  Roman 
law  was  practised  in  the  courts;  and  Roman  folklore  was  still 
the  inspiration  of  the  poet.  While  spinning,  the  Florentine 
mother  related  "stories  of  the  Trojans,  of  Fiesole,  and  Rome." 
The  Italians  had  regarded  the  great  men  of  Roman  history  as 
their  ancestors  long  before  the  Humanists  represented  them  as 
the  teachers  of  the  modern  world.  When  the  Italian  poet 
struck  the  lyre,  he  seemed  to  make  music  in  the  familiar  strains 
of  ancient  Rome,  for  the  same  spirit  breathes  from  the  old  and 
the  new  song  (Burckhardt).  The  Italian  Humanists  are  remi- 
niscent both  in  language  and  personality  of  the  literati  and 
grammarians  of  the  ancients.  There  is  an  unmistakable  re- 
semblance between  Rhemmius  Palaemon  and  Filelfo,  between 
Vittorino  and  Verrius  Flaccus.  The  wandering  orators  and 
minstrels  carry  one's  thoughts  back  to  the  Sophists  of  the  Em- 
pire, and  the  immigrant  Greeks  of  the  I5th  century  recall  the 
Greek  grammarians  who  settled  in  Rome  in  the  period  of  the 
Gracchi.  All  that  was  brought  to  light  of  the  ancient  world 
was  regarded  as  common  property  and  was,  in  some  measure, 
appreciated  and  assimilated  by  the  entire  nation.  Even  if  the 
Humanists — and  the  Italian  Humanists  stand  alone  in  this — 
formed  a  class  apart  and  kept  aloof  from  the  masses,  yet  their 
interests  were  shared  by  all  the  people.  Everybody  seemed  to 
be  ransacking  libraries  and  out-of-the-way  places  for  literary 
treasures,  and  thousands  were  employed  in  transcribing  manu- 
scripts. The  courtier  recited  Latin  verses,  and  in  many  in- 
stances they  were  of  his  own  composition.  On  one  day  both 
peasants  and  townspeople  would  attend  the  (even  if  but  half- 
understood)  oration  of  the  learned  orator,  and  on  the  next  day 
they  would  lustily  applaud  the  mythological  figures  in  the 

1  Dante,  Par.,  15,  124. 


276  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

pageant.  The  inhabitants  of  Arpino  were  proud  of  their  towns- 
man Cicero,  and  when  Pope  Pius  II.  discovered  some  Arpinites 
among  his  prisoners  of  war,  he  set  them  free  in  honor  of  the 
great  orator.  Every  town  connected  the  new  interests  with  its 
memories  and  its  hopes.  Florence  could  justly  claim  the  honor 
of  having  formulated  the  new  educational  principle  and  of 
having  made  accessible  the  treasures  of  Roman  as  well  as  of 
Greek  culture.  Hence  Poliziano  could  exclaim,  in  the  first  of 
his  lectures  on  Homer:  "Ye  men  of  Florence  may  be  proud  of 
your  city,  for  here  the  whole  of  Greek  culture,  which  had  died 
long  ago  in  Greece,  has  been  recalled  to  a  new  and  vigorous 
life  ...  so  that  it  may  well  seem  as  though  Athens  had  not 
died  and  had  not  been  pillaged  by  the  barbarians,  but  had  only 
been  transplanted,  according  to  her  desires,  along  with  her  art 
and  literature,  to  Florence,  for  with  this  city  has  she  now  been 
assimilated."  And,  indeed,  there  is  a  kinship  between  ancient 
Athens,  the  school  of  Greece,  and  the  new  Etruria,  the  teacher 
of  Italy;  between  the  joyous  greatness  of  the  age  of  Pericles 
and  the  creative  and  gladsome  genius  of  the  Medici  period. 
Florence  appears  democratic  enough  in  its  literary  circles,  but 
at  Venice  the  Humanists  were  aristocrats  in  their  oligarchic 
aloofness,1  and  in  Rome  they  adapted  themselves  to  the  hier- 
archic traditions  and  thus  secured  the  patronage  of  the  Curia. 
"The  School  of  Athens,"  Raphael's  famous  painting  in  the 
Stanza  della  Segnatura  in  the  Vatican  (done  between  1508  and 
1511),  illustrates  the  assimilation  of  ancient  and  modern  ele- 
ments. The  ancient  sages  are  grouped  about  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle, but  among  their  number  we  recognize  the  familiar  faces 
of  the  Renaissance.  One  youth  has  the  features  of  Maria  della 
Rovere,  Duke  of  Urbino,  and  another,  the  features  of  Frederick 
II.  of  Mantua;  Archimedes  has  the  features  of  Bramantes,  the 
great  architect;  and  Perugino,  Raphael's  teacher,  and  the  painter 
himself  are  in  the  scene.  The  paintings  of  the  whole  hall  are 
designed  to  represent  the  sum-total  of  the  arts  and  sciences  of 
the  period.  The  paintings  on  the  ceiling  represent  theology 
(divinarum  rerum  notitia)^  poetry  (numine  afflatur),  philosophy 
(causarum  cognitio),  and  justice  (jus  suum  cuique  tribuens). 
The  corresponding  paintings  on  the  walls  are:  the  Disputa, 
the  assembly  of  the  Doctors  and  Theologians  of  the  Church; 
the  Parnassus,  the  poets  and  musicians  of  ancient  and  modern 
times;  the  School  of  Athens;  and  scenes  from  the  history  of 

1  G.  Voigt,  Die  Wiederbelebungdes  klassischen  Altertums,  Berlin,  1859,  p.  207. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  THE  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.  277 

law.  As  Dante  in  the  Middle  Ages  presented  in  his  poetry 
all  that  occupied  the  minds  of  his  contemporaries  and  fired 
their  ambitions,  so  the  painter  now  sought  to  express,  in  keeping 
with  the  spirit  of  the  changed  world,  all  that  was  the  inspiration 
of  his  time.  The  men  of  a  later  day  could  not  appreciate  the 
naivete  with  which  the  pagan  elements  were  intermingled  with 
the  Christian,  arid  therefore  interpreted  the  School  of  Athens  as 
"Paul  Preaching  to  the  Athenians." 

Italian  Humanism  began  to  decline  after  the  first  decade  of 
the  1 6th  century;  the  sometime  celebrated  poets  and  philologists 
passed  under  a  cloud,  and  though  they  still  held  sway  in  mat- 
ters of  language  and  style,  their  company  was  no  longer  sought. 
Printed  editions  of  the  classics,  of  handbooks,  and  reference 
works  dispensed  to  some  extent  with  the  personal  teaching  of 
the  Humanists,  and  the  latter  were  moreover  suspected  of  being 
Epicureans  and  infidels.1  The  Church  had  to  take  measures 
against  the  new  paganism,  which  was  the  more  dangerous  as 
the  ancient  ideas  had  entered  deep  into  life.  The  Humanists 
subsequently  confined  their  activities  to  the  study  and  the 
school.  However,  the  whole  nation  had  benefited  by  the  move- 
ment: it  learned  to  appreciate  its  glorious  past,  acquired  an 
interest  in  art,  a  pure  taste,  refined  manners,  which  happy  gifts 
are  still  possessed  by  the  Italians  and  mark  them  even  to-day 
the  richest  heirs  of  the  ancient  world.  It  is  the  glory  of  the 
Italian  people  to  have  transmitted  their  ancient  inheritance 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  their  own  country  to  the  rest  of  the 
civilized  world.  "The  conquest  of  the  Western  World  was  ac- 
complished, indeed,  by  the  Renaissance,  but  by  the  Renaissance 
as  inspired  by  Italian  ideals"  (Burckhardt). 

2.  In  France,  too,  there  was  much  to  connect  the  present 
with  the  ancient  greatness.  "The  might  and  power  of  Rome 
had  built  the  roads,  the  aqueducts,  the  castles,  and  cities  of 
France;  the  remains  of  Julian's  Baths  could  still  be  seen  in 
Paris.  The  very  language  of  France  established  an  affinity 
with  ancient  Rome,  and  the  Church  told  in  her  legends  of  the 
French  martyrs  of  the  early  Roman  Church.  French  literature 
was,  likewise,  cast  in  the  mould  of  ancient  Rome:  satires,  come- 
dies, idylls,  odes,  and  the  apotheosis  of  the  king  were  as  popular 
in  France  as  they  had  ever  been  at  Rome. "  The  schools  of 

1  See  the  masterly  presentation  of  the  history  of  the  Humanistic  movement 
in  Burckhardt,  The  Civilization  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  transl.  by  Middle- 
more,  London,  1898,  part  III. 

2  K.  Rosenkranz,  Diderots  Leben  und  Werke,  Leipzig,  1 866,  I,  p.  2. 


THE    RENAISSANCE. 

Chartres  and  Orleans  had  during  the  Scholastic  period  remained 
centres  of  classical  learning.  Yet  France  had  been  at  the  same 
time  a  prime  force  in  all  medieval  movements.  In  France  knight- 
hood was  most  fully  developed;  here  the  universities  received 
their  definitive  form,  and  in  this  country  the  Scholastics  had 
their  most  frequented  schools.  Italy  was  the  seat  of  the  Holy 
See,  and  Germany  of  the  Emperor,  but  France  could  boast  the 
greatest  seats  of  learning.  Because  the  nation  was  thus  per- 
meated with  the  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages,  it  never  truckled  to 
the  Humanistic  ideas.  French  Humanism  differed  from  the  Ital- 
ian in  that  it  did  not  appear  as  a  vital  element,  but  appealed  to 
the  learned  only.  The  French  kings  patronized  and  popularized 
the  new  learning  in  the  hope  of  aggrandizing  their  power,  both 
in  intellectual  and  political  matters,  by  making  their  people 
familiar  with  the  authority  enjoyed  by  the  Roman  emperors. 
The  influence  of  the  classical  studies  on  the  French  language 
was  slow  in  asserting  itself,  but  deep  and  abiding.  The  literary 
language  of  France  is  a  product  of  the  Renaissance,  and  the 
'peculiar  style  of  the  French,  logical,  indeed,  but  rhetorical 
withal,  bears  evident  traces  of  the  influence  of  the  Humanistic 
studies.  The  French  classics  combine  in  a  masterly  way  the 
ancient  motifs  with  the  new  national  ideals.  The  individualism 
of  the  ancients,  their  striving  for  artistic  expression,  and  the 
skeptical  joyousness  of  their  life  have  become  vital  elements 
with  the  French  more  than  with  any  other  people.  The  real 
fruits  of  the  new  spirit  were  enjoyed  in  the  salons — witness 
Hotel  Rambouillet — where  the  fashionable  world  had  met  even 
during  the  Renaissance  period.  Still,  the  whole  nation  shared 
the  good  results.  The  vivacity  and  versatility  of  the  French, 
their  refined  taste  and  courtly  manners — all  bear  the  impress  of 
Renaissance  influence.  The  native  love  of  the  French  for  honor 
and  glory  was  encouraged  by  the  kindred  ambition  of  the  an- 
cients, and  the  French  schools  used  the  prize  system  most  ex- 
tensively. 

3.  Latin  schools  had  been  opened  in  England  in  the  I5th 
century,  and  several  English  works  on  Humanistic  education 
were  published  in  the  i6th  century.1  But  among  the  English 
powerful  influences  were  at  work  to  check  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  Latin  Europe  had  received  the  new  learning.-  The  English 
High  Church  looked  on  it  with  no  kindly  eye  and  the  Puritans 
were  opposed  to  the  cultivation  of  the  fine  arts.  Add  to  this  the 

1  Cf.  McCormick,  History  of  Education,  pp.  204  ff. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  THE  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.  27Q 

narrow  utilitarian  standard  applied,  as  a  result  of  Bacon's  teach- 
ing, to  knowledge  and  learning,  and  we  shall  understand  why  a 
sympathetic  study  of  antiquity  was  impossible  in  England.  The 
pride  of  the  Englishman  would  not  permit  him  to  enter  fully 
into  the  beauty  and  spirit  of  ancient  poetry.  Shakespeare  is 
very  free  in  adapting  the  ancient  materials  to  modern  settings, 
and  resembles,  i'n  this  regard,  more  the  medieval  minstrels  than 
the  poets  of  the  Renaissance.  Yet  in  one  point  the  English 
were  more  akin  to  the  ancients  than  the  other  peoples.  Of  all 
modern  peoples,  England  alone  possessed  a  truly  public  political 
life;  she  alone  offered  opportunities  to  the  orator  and  his  living 
voice;  and  she  alone  had  a  class  of  men  destined  to  wield  politi- 
cal power  and  that  had,  therefore,  to  be  trained  for  the  political 
profession.  The  education  of  the  sons  of  the  gentry,  "our 
noble  and  our  gentle  youth,"  presented  problems  similar  to 
those  of  the  education  of  the  free-born  citizens  of  Greece  and 
Rome.  A  general  education  was  required,  not  a  narrow  voca- 
tional training;  the  personality  had  to  be  developed;  and — this 
was  of  the  greatest  moment— the  youth  had  to  acquire  the 
mastery  of  language.  It  was  thus  advisable  to  use  in  England 
the  same  means  as  had  proved  successful  with  the  ancients — 
the  study  of  language  in  all  its  phases,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
scientific  research,  neither,  at  least  not  directly,  for  the  purpose 
of  aesthetic  appreciation,  but,  instead,  as  a  formal  element  that 
would  train  the  mind  and  bring  out  and  perfect  the  pupil's 
individuality.  Humanistic  studies  came  to  be  considered,  then, 
the  ideal  education  of  the  English  gentleman,  because  they 
seemed  to  be  best  adapted  to  develop  and  train  the  public 
character;  and  in  this  regard  England  remained  more  closely 
related  to  the  ancients  than  the  other  modern  peoples.  She 
valued  the  Humanistic  studies  as  a  national  asset,  and  held  her 
Latin  school  in  high  esteem  as  being  the  training  school  of 
her  gentlemen,  her  members  of  Parliament,  and  her  statesmen.1 
This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  England,  though  slower  than 
the  other  peoples  in  receiving  the  Renaissance  culture,  has 
tenaciously  retained  down  to  our  own  day  the  early  Human- 
istic school  system.  The  present-day  Latin  schools  of  Eng- 
land are  faithfully  preserving  the  traditions  of  more  than  three 
centuries.  They  still  regard  Religion,  Latin,  and  Greek  as  the 
quintessence  of  a  liberal  education;  they  revere  the  headmaster, 
as  did  the  first  Humanists,  as  the  head  and  heart  of  his  school; 

1  L.  Stein,  Verwaltungslehre^  Vol.  V:  Das  Bildungswesen,  1868,  pp.  327  ff. 


28O  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

and  retain  even  so  much  of  the  old  school  customs  as  to  as- 
semble the  scholars  of  all  the  classes  in  one  large  hall,  where 
the  headmaster  reigns  supreme,  and  where  the  greatest  men  of 
English  history  have  sat  in  their  boyhood  days  and  have  left 
their  names  in  rude  carvings  on  the  old  school  desks. 

4.  Germany  seemed  to  offer  few  opportunities  to  the  Hu- 
manists. There  was  no  kinship  between  the  Germans  and  the 
ancients;  there  were  no  rulers  eager  to  resuscitate  the  power  of 
the  Caesars;  neither  did  an  education  to  statesmanship  along 
Roman  lines  appeal  to  the  Germans.  The  Humanists  were 
consequently  obliged  to  strike  the  hard  rock  till  the  water  would 
issue  forth,  and  the  schoolmen  had  to  be  at  weary  pains  to  dig 
the  channels  for  its  distribution  among  the  people.  Herder 
describes  the  Latin  poets  of  the  German  Renaissance  as  being 
satisfied  with  reciting  their  lessons  before  their  ancient  masters. 
The  German  polyhistorians  of  the  same  period  appear  to  be 
helpless  beneath  the  mass  and  weight  of  their  learning;  and 
neither  the  poets  nor  the  scholars  of  the  German  Renaissance 
can  be  compared  to  the  French  and  Italian  Humanists,  for  the 
latter  had  not  only  received  the  learning  of  the  ancients,  but 
had  also  imbibed  their  spirit.  The  German  Renaissance  was 
undoubtedly  rich  in  labors,  but  poor  in  creative  power;  eager 
for  knowledge,  but  slow  in  assimilation;  abounding  in  erudition, 
but  wanting  in  culture.  Still  the  labor  was  not  in  vain.  Its 
fruits  appeared,  even  if  late,  and  Germany  need  not  blush  for 
the  results.  It  was  only  in  the  i8th  century  that  the  spirit  of 
the  ancients  had  entered  deeply  and  fully  into  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  people,  and  the  names  of  Winckelmann,  Herder,  and 
Goethe  prove,  not  only  that  the  Germans  had  far  outstripped 
the  other  peoples  by  penetrating  beyond  the  culture  of  Rome 
to  that  of  Greece,  but.  that  they  had  of  all  moderns  appreciated 
most  perfectly  the  real  specific  content  of  Humanism,  that 
broad  cosmopolitan  view  of  the  world  and  of  men  and  of  things 
which  is  so  characteristic  a  trait  of  the  ancients.  But  even  the 
drudgery  of  the  i6th  and  iyth  centuries  was  not  in  vain,  for 
this  drudgery  was  needed  to  adjust  the  Humanistic  studies  to 
the  educative  process.  This  drudgery  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  German  school  system,  which  seems  to  strike  the  happy 
mean  between  the  French  centralization  of  education  and  the 
sovereign  independence  of  the  English  schools.  The  German 
school  system  has  proved  a  reservoir  (as  it  were)  of  German 
culture.  From  it  the  whole  nation  derives  food  and  refreshment 


THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  THE  DIFFERENT  COUNTRIES.  28l 

of  the  spirit,  while  it  itself  remains  open  on  all  sides  in  order  to 
receive,  from  every  available  source,  an  increase  of  its  original 
supply.  The  German  Humanists  and  savants  did  not  explore 
the  new  fields  of  the  ancient  world.  Instead,  they  minted  and 
brought  into  circulation  the  gold  that  other  peoples  had  thence 
brought  home.  Their  aim  was  neither  sesthetical,  nor  archeo- 
logical,  but  pedagogical.  The  Germans  have  produced  a  goodly 
share  of  the  many  educational  works  of  die  Renaissance,  and 
the  conception  of  didactics  as  the  science  of  education  and  the 
art  of  teaching  is  an  achievement  of  the  German  polymathists 
of  the  iyth  century. 


VIII. 

THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
The  Character  of  the  Enlightenment. 

i.  Education  in  general  lights  up  the  intellectual  horizon, 
deals 'the  deathblow  to  foolish  and  unfounded  traditions,  and 
insures  independence  of  judgment.  Every  new  educational  prin- 
ciple is  a  source  of  light,  and  its  rays  dispel  the  clouds  and  the 
darkness  connected  with  a  principle  that  has  outlived  itself. 
Thus  Christianity  had  taught  the  world  to  walk  in  light,  and 
hence  demonism,  the  foundation  of  heathenism,  had  to  dis- 
appear along  with  all  the  darkness  of  superstitions  and  vague 
notions  that  were  bound  up  with  the  curious  mixture  of  cults 
and  mythologies  of  latter  antiquity:  Vetustatem  novitas,  um- 
bram  fugat  veritas,  noctem  lux  etiminat.1  Similarly,  Humanism 
meant  the  deathblow  to  many  superstitions  current  in  the 
learning  and  the  daily  life  of  the  Middle  Ages:  Petrarch  con- 
sidered the  war  upon  astrologers  and  quacks  no  mean  part  of 
his  lifework,  and  the  greatest  men  of  the  period  were  engaged 
in  correcting  the  misinterpretations  of  certain  teachings  of  the 
ancients. 

All  these  effects  o'f  education  are,  though  valuable,  yet  purely 
negative,  and  cannot  compare  in  importance  with  the  positive 
results  accruing  from  a  system  of  education  that  is  rich  in  con- 
tent and  that  rests  on  a  solid  foundation.  In  the  latter  case 
the  mind  will  turn  to  the  full  light  itself,  will  find  a  sweet  joy 
in  its  contemplation,  and  will  not  forego  this  joy  for  the 
pleasure  of  lighting  up  with  torches  some  dark  corner  in  the 
distance.  But  when  clever  minds  are  denied  an  education  that 
is  satisfying  in  content,  they  will  be  more  interested  in  the 
enlightenment  than  in  the  light  itself.  This  was  the  case  at 
the  time  of  the  Greek  Sophists,  when  the  ethos  of  ancient  Attica 
was  fast  losing  its  influence,  and  when  philosophy  had  not  yet 
developed  sufficiently  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  faith,  knowledge, 
and  human  striving.  The  Sophists,  and  even  Socrates  and  the 

1  Thomas  Aquinas,  Lauda  Sion. 

282 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE   ENLIGHTENMENT.  283 

one-sided  Socratics,  were  apostles  of  enlightenment.  Their  aim 
was,  not  to  foster  a  certain  content  of  knowledge,  but  to  bring 
light  into  things  and  into  the  heads,  to  remove  prejudices,  to 
train  to  self-reliance,  whether  of  the  virtuoso,  the  Seu>os,  or  of 
the  self-satisfied  wise  man.1  The  same  tendency  may  be  ob- 
served in  other  philosophical  systems  at  the  time  of  their  de- 
cline. The  Nil  admirari  of  the  Epicureans  (Horace,  Ep.,  1,6,  i) 
is  the  maxim  of  the  ancient  Voltairien^  who  scorns  the  prejudices 
of  the  wonder-loving  rabble  as  well  as  all  "philosophical  mar- 
velling," the  OavfjLaa-fjLos  (£tXdcro<£os-2  The  sapere  aude  (ibid., 
2,  40)  is  the  motto  of  all  such  as  consider  the  rejecting  of  the 
opinions  of  others  a  proof  of  courage.  Though  the  Stoics  re- 
spected the  objectivity  of  human  reason,  yet  they,  too,  sat  in 
judgment  on  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  past;  their  indi- 
vidual opinions  were  their  standard  of  judgment,  and  the  ra- 
tione  componi  was  their  rule  of  life.8 

The  tendency  toward  enlightenment  did  not  in  any  of  the 
above  instances  extend  beyond  the  field  of  education.  However, 
in  the  so-called  Age  of  Enlightenment  this  tendency  was  more 
than  a  principle  of  knowledge  and  learning;  it  was  the  leading 
idea  in  all  the  movements  of  the  period. 

2.  The  1 8th  century  has  styled  itself  the  siecle  eclaire,  the 
Enlightened  Age,  or  the  Philosophical  Age,  and  has  tried  to 
formulate  philosophically  its  own  tendencies.  We  have  quite  a 
number  of  these  definitions  and  explanations  of  the  dominating 
idea  of  the  period.  However,  all  these  explanations  give  too 
broad  a  meaning  to  the  term  Enlightenment,  attach  too  much 
weight  to  its  content,  and  judge  the  tendencies  of  the  world  of 
the  1 8th  century  to  be  the  tendencies  of  all  men  of  all  times. 
Still,  such  mistakes  were  to  be  expected  of  an  attempt  to  express 
in  a  fixed  and  settled  form  what  is  still  subject  to  change,  or 
to  embody,  while  in  the  midst  of  a  movement,  its  ends  and 
aims  in  a  pithy  and  epigrammatic  form.4  Aufklarung  (enlighten- 

1  The  Greek  language  has  a  drastic  simile  for  this  activity:  ratiocination 
is  described  as  the  highest  and  most  perfect  of  purgatives;  Plato,  Soph.,  p. 230: 
rbv  e\eyxov  XCKT^WP  us  &pa  /j.eylffTT)  *cai  Kvpiurdrrj  TWV  KaOdpffe&v  fcrriv. 

2  See  supra,  Introduction,  II,  I. 

3  Seneca,  P.p.,  123:  "Inter  causas  malorum  nostrorum  est,  quod  vivimv.s  ad 
exempla  nee  rations  componimur,  sed  consuetudine  abducimur. "     Id.,  De  vita 
beata:  "Nulla  res  majoribus  ma/is  nos  implicat,    qvam  quod  ad  rumorem  com- 
ponimur, optima  rati  ea,  quce  magno  assensu  recepta  sunt  quorumque  exempla 
multa  sunt" 

4  Kant  defines  enlightenment  as  the  "passing  of  man  from  the  nonage  to 
which  he  had  been  reduced  through  his  own  fault."     (In  the  Berliner  Monats- 


284  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

ment)  means  literally  the  breaking  up  of  the  clouds,  the  clearing 
of  the  sky;  and  figuratively,  in  the  matter  of  education,  the 
human  mind  is  the  sky,  that  is  clouded  with  prejudices,  and  the 
latter  include  all  views  and  beliefs  that  have  been  transmitted 
from  the  past  and  that  cannot  be  recognized  by  the  minds  of 
the  present  generation  as  logically  sound  and  objectively  true. 
These  prejudices  must  be  dispelled  by  the  human  reason,  and 
the  critical  faculties  of  the  individual  must  pass  sentence  on 
everything,  especially  on  such  matters  as  pertain  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  individual.  This  independent  reasoning  is  expected 
to  produce,  not  only  intellectual  results,  but  also  to  reform  the 
morals  of  the  people;  for  by  applying  his  mind  to  these  prob- 
lems, man  will  outgrow  the  nonage  to  which  he  has  been  reduced 
through  his  blind  obedience  to  the  traditions  of  the  past.  Man 
cannot  be  happy  until  he  repudiates  all  these  traditions,  and 
after  the  individual  has  done  so,  he  must  co-operate  in  spread- 
ing this  enlightenment  so  as  to  make,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
whole  human  race  supremely  happy  and  good. 

With  regard  to  religion,  the  individual  was  granted  full  lib- 
erty to  decide  for  himself  what  he  would  believe.  The  human 
reason  sat  in  judgment  on  the  truths  of  religion,  and  thus  it 
was  inevitable  that  either  revelation  was  discarded  entirely 
or  that  at  least  much  of  its  content  was  thrown  overboard 
(Rationalism).  Inconsistently,  certain  truths  of  Christianity 
were  retained — as  the  existence  of  God  (Deism)  and  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul — while  others  were  rejected.  Christianity 

schrift,  1784,  quoted  in  Werke  in  chron.  Reihenjolge  herausgegeben  von  Harten- 
stein,  IV,  pp.  161  ff.)  M.  Mendelssohn,  dealing  with  the  same  subject  and 
in  the  same  Monatsschrift,  arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  enlightenment  united 
with  civilization  constitutes  a  nation's  culture,  while  enlightenment  as  such  is 
"rational  thinking  and  reasoning  on  the  matters  of  human  life,  according  to 
their  relative  importance  for  man  and  their  influence  on  his  actions."  See 
Lazarus,  Ideale  Fragen,  Berlin,  1878,  pp.  271  fT.,  fop  a  criticism  of  the  defini- 
tions of  Kant  and  Mendelssohn.  Nicolai  (Beschreibung  einer  Reise  durc h  Deutsch- 
land,  781)  makes  a  distinction  between  "Kultur,"  "Politur, "  and  Aufklarung, 
and  defines  the  last-named  as  the  "understanding  of  all  mattes  of  human  life, 
which  are  to  be  judged  according  to  their  bearing  on  the  welfare  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  community. "  For  definitions  of  older  political  economists  see 
L.  Stein,  Verwaltungslehre,  V,  p.  34.  C.  F.  Bahrdt,  the  cynic  among  the 
philosophers  of  the  Enlightenment,  considered  it  typical  of  the  enlightened 
man  that  "he  followed  in  all  things  his  own  judgment."  Of  recent  thinkers, 
Erdmann  gives  a  good  analysis  of  the  German  Enlightenment,  in  his  Grundriss 
der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,  II,  §293,  where  he  arrives  at  this  definition: 
"The  Enlightenment  (of  the  1 8th  century)  strove  to  give  to  man,  as  to  an 
individual  endowed  with  reason,  the  command  over  all  things." 


THE    CHARACTER  OF  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT.  285 

had  ever  maintained  the  intimate  relationship  existing  between 
the  Lex  orandi  and  the  Lex  agendi^  between  belief  and  practice; 
but  now  faith  was  declared  a  matter  of  choice,  and  man  was 
held  responsible  for  his  moral  conduct  only  (Moralism).  The 
Church  was  regarded,  irrespective  of  her  supernatural  origin 
and  her  historical  character,  as  an  association  of  similarly-minded 
worshippers,  and  her  teachings  and  laws  were  scorned  as  relics 
of  the  religious  despotism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  State  and 
Society  were  likewise  reminded  that  the  individual  possessed 
certain  inalienable  birthrights;  the  relations  between  the  govern- 
ment and  its  subjects  were  traced  back  to  the  social  compact 
entered  into  in  time  immemorial.  Yet  this  exalted  sense  of 
man's  native  rights  did  not  prevent  the  i8th  century  from 
making  the  largest  concessions  to  every  State  that  placed  its 
government  machinery  at  the  disposal  of  the  philosophers  of 
the  Enlightenment.  All  social  differences  and  distinctions  were 
condemned  as  being  opposed  to  the  dogma:  all  men  are  born 
equal.  That  all  class  distinctions  and  all  social  relations  be 
abolished — or,  if  that  prove  impossible,  be  much  weakened, 
(Social  Atomism) — was  adjudged  indispensable  to  the  happiness 
of  the  race.  Men  no  longer  considered  themselves  citizens  of 
one  nation,  but  citizens  of  the  world;  and  the  day  when  the 
civilized  peoples  of  Europe  would  be  classed,  no  longer  accord- 
ing to  their  respective  nationalities,  but  according  to  their 
vocations,  was  hailed  as  the  dawn  of  the  era  of  universal  blessed- 
ness (Cosmopolitanism).  The  historical  development  of  certain 
conditions  were,  like  the  social  relations,  ignored:  Ovid's  line, 
" Qua  non  fecimus  ipsi,  vix  ea  nostra  voco,"1  describes  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Enlightenment  toward  the  historical  foundations  of 
human  life.  The  period  blindly  applied  the  standard  of  the 
present  to  all  the  past.  What  appeared  on  the  surface  to  be  akin 
to  the  present,  was  taken  over  unconditionally  and  praised 
extravagantly;  but  no  mercy  was  shown  to  any  past  movement 
that  was  out  of  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  i8th  century. 
No  historical  period  was  so  much  misunderstood  as  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  "Dark  Ages,"  the  "period  of  Roman  obscurantism 
and  Gothic  grimaces;"  and  little  wonder,  for  the  spirit  of  the 
Ages  of  Faith  is  diametrically  opposed  to  that  of  the  skeptical 
and  rationalistic  Enlightenment.  In  keeping  with  the  tendency 
to  ignore  all  socio-historical  ties,  the  end  and  aim  of  life  was 
determined  without  regard  to  any  higher  relationship,  but  solely 

1  Metam.,  13,  140. 


286  THE   ENLIGHTENMENT. 

from  the  viewpoint  of  the  needs  of  the  individual  (Individual- 
ism). Ethics  confined  itself  to  the  study  of  the  virtues;  there 
were  no  longer  any  objective  moral  boons;  and  what  was  useful 
or  merely  pleasant,  was  often  declared  moral.  Because  the 
enlightening  of  the  understanding  was  held  to  be  mainly  re- 
sponsible for  the  morality  and  happiness  of  man,  the  feelings 
and  the  will  were  neglected,  and  most  attention  was  given  to 
the  reasoning  faculty.  What  entered  into  consciousness  was  of 
importance;  the  feelings,  the  moods,  which  remained  subcon- 
scious, were  of  no  importance  (Intellectualism);  and  this  trend 
accounts  for  the  soulless  and  heartless  spirit  of  the  age.  Logi- 
cally the  next  step  was  to  seek  the  foundations  of  psychical  life, 
not  in  the  broader  circle  of  intellectual  activity,  but  in  the 
sense-impressions  (Sensualism). 

In  all  these  fields  the  Enlightenment  clarified  only  what  was 
on  the  surface.  It  perceived,  indeed,  the  superficial  difficulties, 
but  was  at  the  same  time  wofully  purblind  to  what  was  beneath 
the  surface;  and  it  is  the  depths,  the  deep  truths,  that  have  been 
muddied  in  this  age.  Though  the  Enlightenment  gloried  in  its 
opposition  to  all  forms  of  barbarism,  yet  it  was  itself  barbarous 
in  its  contempt  for,  and  even  destruction  of,  venerable  monu- 
ments of  the  past. 

3.  The  Renaissance  had  successively  brought  all  the  civilized 
nations  of  Europe  under  its  influence,  and  the  Enlightenment, 
following  in  its  wake,  assumed,  despite  its  cosmopolitan  tend- 
ency, a  different  character  among  the  different  nations.  The 
Enlightenment,  unlike  the  Renaissance,  set  out  from  England, 
where  the  religious  conflict  had  raged  longest  and  fiercest,  bring- 
ing about  at  first  the  extremes  of  religious  fanaticism,  but  even- 
tually giving  way  to  a  reaction  that  led  men  to  doubt  the  very 
objectivity  of  religious  truth.  The  English  Enlightenment  at- 
tacked in  particular  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  and  being 
thus  confined  almost  exclusively  to  theological  questions,  it 
exerted,  on  the  whole,  but  little  influence  outside  the  pale 
of  scholars  and  philosophers.  The  French  Enlightenment  was 
neither  so  unwieldy  nor  so  serious  as  the  English;  but  with 
pleasant  and  engaging  manners,  it  addressed  itself  first  to  the 
highest  classes  of  society  to  whom  it  offered  in  the  Encyclopedic 
much  knowledge  with  little  labor,  next  to  the  political  leaders, 
and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  great  upheaval  that  devas- 
tated France  before  the  end  of  the  century.  The  German 
Enlightenment  was  deeply  influenced  by  the  form  which  the 
movement  had  taken  first  in  England  and  then  in  France.  It  is, 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT.       287 

like  the  English,  theological  and  serious,  but  differs  from  it  in 
that  it  spread,  like  the  French,  the  new  philosophy  among  the 
masses.  It  was,  however,  shorn  of  some  of  its  baleful  effects 
by  the  German  Renaissance  and  the  consequent  revival  of 
German  patriotism. 

Many  considerations  urged  the  leaders  of  the  Enlightenment 
to  take  up  the  matter  of  education,  and  thus  the  "Philosophical 
Age"  came  to  be  known  also  as  the  "Pedagogical  Age."  The 
preceding  ages  had  handed  down  educational  materials  enough 
to  tempt  the  critical  propensities  of  the  Enlightenment.  The 
higher  schools  were  still  conducted  along  Renaissance  lines,  and 
their  teaching  methods  had  been  modified  but  little  by  the 
many  improvements  suggested  by  the  didacticians.  The  ele- 
mentary school,  satisfied  with  catechism  and  primej,  could  not 
fit  its  pupils  to  take  up  the  greatly  augmented  work  of  the 
trades  and  industries.  Industrial  and  technical  schools  there 
were  none.  Moreover,  for  establishing  a  new  basis  of  life — the 
dream  of  the  Enlightenment — there  could  be  no  easier  and 
smoother  process  than  the  instilling  of  the  new  principles  into 
the  young;  for  after  the  young  generation  had  come  to  taste 
the  new  happiness,  it  would  take  only  a  short  time  until  all  the 
civilized  world  would  be  one  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  new  boons. 
The  principles  of  Christianity  had  been  abandoned  by  society, 
and  hence  education  must  also  be  grounded  on  other  principles 
than  those  of  Christ.  This  reform  of  education  did  not  appear 
difficult,  because  all  socio-ethical  and  historical  considerations 
had  been  cast  aside,  and  consequently  it  was  considered  sufficient 
to  adjust  education  to  the  needs  only  of  the  individual  child. 
No  more  was  required  than  that  the  school  should  make  its 
pupils  virtuous  and  happy,  useful  and  healthy  in  mind  and 
body.  Because  of  its  overestimation  of  intellectual  work  the 
age  attached  too  much  importance  to  instruction;  and  expected 
the  improved  teaching  methods  to  produce  far-reaching  results. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

The  Content  of  the  Education  of  the  Enlightenment. 

i.  Theology  had  been  the  centre  of  early  Christian  educa- 
tion; Scholasticism,  of  medieval  education;  and  philology,  of  the 
Renaissance  schools.  But  the  education  of  the  Enlightenment 
lacks  such  a  centre.  Though  the  period  vaunted  itself  as  being 


288  THE   ENLIGHTENMENT. 

the  philosophical  age,  yet  philosophy  was  assuredly  not  its 
centre,  for  the  philosophy  of  the  time  was  not  concerned  with 
building  up  a  connected  system  of  views  and  principles,  but  col- 
lected only  the  elements  for  such  a  system.  The  natural  sciences, 
which  were  now,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  treated  as  a  cult- 
ural subject,  were  prevented  by  their  very  nature  from  being  the 
centre  of  general  education.  The  basic  principle  of  the  En- 
lightenment expressed  no  content;  it  implied  only  the  formal 
directions,  that  the  reasoning  powers  are  to  be  developed  and 
that  useful  knowledge  is  to  be  acquired.  These  precepts  did, 
indeed,  suggest  the  modification  of  the  educational  content  of 
the  past,  but  not  the  creation  of  a  new  cdntent;  and,  in  fact, 
the  Enlightenment  did  little  more  than  adopt  the  encyclopedic 
tendency  (adjusted  to  its  own  critical  attitude)  of  the  Ren- 
aissance. 

The  theology  of  the  older  education  was  wholly  discarded  by 
only  the  most  radical  representatives  of  French  Enlightenment. 
Diderot,  a  Theist  in  his  exoteric  writings,  was  a  pronounced 
atheist  in  his  esoteric  works;  and  Rousseau  preserved  only  a 
shadow  of  theology  in  his  educational  system,  for  he  would 
have  the  child  instructed  in  a  purely  natural  religion.  Among 
the  Protestants  there  were  too  many  intermediate  stages  be- 
tween the  spirit  of  the  age  and  the  orthodox  teaching  to  allow 
the  extremists  to  banish  religion  from  the  schools.  Even  the 
rationalistic  school  of  Wolf?  was  mildly  interested  in  theology, 
although  the  content  of  Faith  was  at  the  mercy  of  their  sub- 
jective criticism.  And  Pietism  also,  though  intended  originally 
to  supply  a  real  need  of  religion,  was  in  its  later  development 
subversive  of  the  authority  of  dogma1  and  bore  the  brunt  of  the 
attacks  made  on  Christianity.  The  Pietists  had  found  their  only 
guarantee  for  the  truth  of  dogma  in  their  own  conviction  of  the 
need  of  justification,  and  hence  they  were  ready  to  receive  the 
doctrine  of  the  rationalist  who  made  the  subjective  mind  the 
criterion  of  all  truth.1  Still,  the  .Pietists  served,  to  a  certain 
extent,  as  a  breastwork  for  the  defence  of  Christianity.  They 
were  most  zealous  in  the  service  of  the  Lord,  and  could  therefore 
not  be  induced  to  accept  the  ultimate  conclusion  from  their  first 
principle — the  denial  of  objective  truth.  The  German  Enlight- 
enment did  away  with  dogma,  sacrificed  all  that  was  character- 
istic of  pure  Christianity,  united  under  the  cloak  of  the  fashion- 
able Deism  the  different  denominations,  and  permitted  canting 

1  Erdmann,  Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,  II,  §293,  2. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT.   289 

and  unctuous  devotions  to  crowd  out  the  Sacred  Scriptures  and 
the  time-honored  hymns  that  had  breathed  a  virile  Faith.  The 
religious  instruction  in  Basedow's  Philanthropinum  in  Dessau 
was  based  on  the  principle  that  "we  owe  the  All-Father  the 
service  of  righteous  conduct;"  it  respected  the  religious  beliefs 
of  Christians,  Jews,  and  Mohammedans,  though  .opposing  the 
"irreligionist;"  and  thus  it  may  be  considered  typical  of  what 
the  German  Enlightenment  accomplished  in  its  attack  on  the 
theological  element  of  education. 

2.  It  is  difficult  to  analyze  the  attitude  of  the  i8th  century 
toward  the  ancient  classics,  for  while  certain  phases  of  the 
ancient  world  appealed  strongly  to  the  Enlightenment,  there 
still  remained  a  wide  gulf  between  the  two  periods.  However, 
the  teachings  of  the  wise  men  of  Greece  and  Rome  seemed  to 
offer  what  the  new  age  was  striving  for — a  purely  rational  and 
natural  religion  that  had  no  need  of  revelation  or  theology. 
Thus  Seneca  was  esteemed  for  his  praise  of  virtue,  and  Socrates 
was  celebrated  as  the  master  of  reasoning.  The  old  repub- 
lics were  idealized,  and  fostered  the  enthusiasm  for  liberty. 
The  cosmopolitanism  of  the  ancients  encouraged  kindred  senti- 
ments in  the  moderns.  It  was  recognized  that  the  ancients 
offered  the  broad  and  liberal  humanity  that  was  lost  when  the 
coming  of  Christ  divided  the  race  into  the  two  classes  of  Chris- 
tians and  unbelievers.  Men  were  impatient  to  break  away  from 
the  bondage  of  the  past  and  to  return  to  the  breast  of  mother 
earth,  and  looked  upon  the  works  of  Homer  as  picturing  such 
ideal  conditions  as  haunted  them  in  their  dreams.  Hence 
Homer  gave  a  new  meaning  to  poetry.  Similar  points  of  con- 
tact were  discovered  between  the  Enlightenment  and  neo-clas- 
sical Humanism.  The  latter  had  begun  and  the  former  now 
continued  the  war  against  the  Middle  Ages  and  their  traditions. 
The  criticism  of  Valla,  the  satire  of  Erasmus,  the  worldly-wise 
skepticism  of  Montaigne,  all  these  were  revived  during  the 
Enlightenment  to  assist  in  the  universal  reconstruction.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  all  this  kinship  of  spirit,  the  Enlightenment 
never  entered  into  so  close  a  relationship  with  the  ancients  as 
the  Renaissance.  Men  were  too  proudly  conscious  of  their  own 
glorious  achievements  to  devote  themselves  as  unreservedly  to 
the  study  of  the  classics  as  the  Humanists  had  done.  The 
opinion  prevailed  that  the  Enlightenment  was  superior  in  every 
regard  to  antiquity,  and  that  only  a  limited  study  of  the  classics 
was  at  all  desirable.  Diderot  loved  the  classics  and  could  grow 

19 


THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

enthusiastic  over  Seneca,  yet  in  his  Plan  of  a  University*  he 
made  scant  provision  for  the  classical  studies.  D'Alembert, 
also  a  deep  student  of  the  classics,  makes  sport  of  the  classical 
studies,  which,  as  he  observes,  teach  "parler  sans  rien  dire," 
and  he  considers  the  time  given  to  the  writing  of  Latin  as  so 
much  time  lost  for  the  real  improvement  of  the  mind.3  Rous- 
seau admits  that  he  admires  Plutarch,  but  drops  the  classics 
from  his  pedagogical  airship  as  so  much  ballast.  Kant,  it  is 
true,  concedes  that  the  study  of  the  classics  "promotes  the 
union  of  the  sciences,  and  assists  in  giving  man  the  character 
of  humanity:  polished  manners,  ready  speech,  and  a  pleasant 
address;"  yet  he  says,  "It  is  absurd  to  deem  the  ancient  writers 
superior  to  the  moderns,  as  though  the  world  were  decadent 
and  all  modern  things,  therefore,  inferior  to  the  ancient."  The 
German  educators  of  the  Enlightenment  scorned  the  classical 
studies  as  being  naught  else  than  unprofitable  drudgery,  frapp 
exclaims,  "Would  to  God  that  the  teacher  had  to  master  only 
his  mother-tongue;  but  even  if  we  could  make  education  perfect, 
we  should  still  expect  in  vain  to  have  Latin  and  French  ban- 
ished from  Germany."  Basedow  did  not  hesitate  to  admit 
that  Latin  was  taught  in  his  Philanthropinum  merely  out  of 
respect  for  the  wishes  of  the  parents  of  his  pupils.  The  utili- 
tarian trend  of  the  period  found  little  connection  between  an- 
cient literature  and  the  practical  needs  of  the  day;  and  the 
tendency  to  develop  as  early  as  possible  the  reasoning  faculties 
blinded  the  educators  to  the  importance  of  developing  the 
language  consciousness.  The  latter  point  marks  a  direct  con- 
trast between  the  Enlightenment  and  the  Renaissance.  The 
language  studies  held  supreme  sway  in  the  Renaissance,  and 
the  fart  posse  was  regarded  as  the  crowning  achievement  of  a 
liberal  education.  But  the  Enlightenment  was  so  taken  up  with 
the  things  of  sense  and  with  the  purely  abstract  thought  as 
almost  to  overlook  the  field  of  language,  which  is  intermediate 
between  the  two,  belonging  as  it  does  to  both  the  senses  and 
the  mind.  Only  in  the  light  of  this  general  tendency  can  it  be 
explained  how  Kant,  when  analyzing  the  perceptive  faculty, 

1  Rosenkranz,  Diderots  Leben  und  Werkc,  Leipzig,  1866,  II,  pp.  335  ff. 

2  Encyclopedic,  s.  v.  College. 

3  Discours  preliminaire  of  the  Encyclopedic. 

4  Werke  in  chron.  Reihenfolge  herausgegeben  von  Hartenstein,  VIII,  p.  46, 
and  VII,  p.  262 ;  cf.  Willmann's  edition  of  Kant's  Pddagogik,  Leipzig,  1 873,  p.  7. 

5  Versuch  einer  Padagogik,  1780,  §102. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT.   2QI 

could  ignore  the  natural  guide  in   any  such  inquiry — the  lan- 
guage consciousness. 

The  situation  in  the  schools,  however,  remained  practically 
unchanged,  and  their  Humanistic  traditions  suffered  but  little 
from   the  theorizing  of  the  Enlightenment.     Rollin  in   France 
and  Gesner  and  Ernesti  in  Germany  were  able  defenders  of  the 
old  education.     Yet  withal  they  knew  how  to  meet  the  new 
demand:  "Things  instead  of  words. "     Rollin's  statement:  " Ce 
qui  doit  dominer  dans  les  classes ,  cest  r  explication  >"  and  Gesner's 
rule:  "Verborum  disciplina  a  rerum  cognitione  nunquam  sepa- 
randa^'  are  expressive  of  the  realism  of  the  Humanists,  which 
held  the  day  against  the  realism  of  the  Philanthropinists.     The 
Philanthropinists  tried  to  exclude  the  classics  from  the  schools, 
for  nothing  was  to  be  taught  but  what  was  of  the  present  and, 
therefore,  directly  useful.   Their  efforts,  however,  were  thwarted, 
because    the   new   German    classicism   introduced   an    idealistic 
conception  of  education  and  thus  defeated  all  their  plans.     The 
creations  of  the  German  classicists  demonstrated  that  the  an- 
cient classics  were  not  a  heap  of  learned  rubbish,  but  still  a 
very  vital  element  and  one  that  offered  such  educational  and 
cultural  opportunities  as  the  age  stood  sorely  in  need  of.  Lessing 
reinstated  Aristotle's  Poetics,  and  Herder  showed  how  the  clas- 
sical studies  ennoble  man's  heart  and  feelings.     Schiller  appealed 
to  the  enemies  of  the  classical  studies  with  this  argument:  "You 
call  the  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome  dead  languages,  but  all 
that  lives  in   your  mother-tongue  has   come  from   Greek  and 
Latin."     The   poetry  of  Schiller  and  Goethe,  which   dealt   so 
expensively  with  antique  subjects,  popularized  the  ideas  and  the 
mythology  of  the  ancients  and  rendered  them  more  familiar  to 
the  masses  than  they  had  been  even  in  the  Renaissance  period. 
By  being  introduced  into  the  schools,  this  poetry  was  a  telling 
factor  in   favor  of  the  classical  studies.     German   literature- 
much  more  than  English  literature  or  the  literature  of  any  of 
the  Latin  peoples — is  a-  sealed  book  to  any  one  unacquainted 
with  the  ancient  classics.     Thus  the  German  higher  schools  suf- 
fered no  harm  from  the  attacks  of  the  Philanthropinists.  On  the 
contrary,  they  gained  by  adding  Greek,  which  had  been   the 
chief  inspiration  of  the  German  neo-classicists.     But  with  the 
encyclopedic   tendencies  of  the  period  many  modern   subjects 
had  also  to  be  added  to  the  course  of  study,  and  the  ancient 
classics  never  regained  the  absolute  sway  that  they  had  exer- 
cised in  the  old  Latin  schools.     The  studies  of  the  Protestant 
gymnasium,  as  organized  under  the  influence  of  the  educational 


292  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

reforms  of  the  i8th  century,  represent  a  compromise  between 
the  curricula  of  Melanchthon  and  Basedow.1 

3.  The  encyclopedic  tendency  of  the  i8th  century  was  origi- 
nally closely  allied  with  that  of  the  preceding  period.  Johann 
Matthias  Gesner,  the  celebrated  Gottingen  professor  and  trainer 
of  teachers,  tried  seriously  in  his  Latin  lectures  to  preserve  the 
traditions  of  the  latter  Renaissance  and  to  meet,  besides,  the  new 
demands  of  his  own  time.  He  confessed  that  the  chief  defect 
of  the  old  schools  was  the  neglect  of  the  mother-tongue,  and 
this  he  would  remedy  by  adding  the  study  of  modern  languages, 
especially  of  the  mother-tongue,  to  the  classical  studies.  He 
also  demanded  that  geography  and  history  be  studied  beside 
literature.  Geography  he  describes  as  "histories  omnis  diverso 
respectu  prima  pars,  atrium,  fundus,  lux;"  and  history,  he  says, 
can  teach  practical  wisdom  most  effectively  by  entering  into  de- 
tails. He  also  insisted  that  mathematics  be  studied,  for  "he 
who  slights  mathematics,  deprives  himself  of  one  eye. "  Gesner 
was  in  favor  of  beginning  the  course  with  Greek  and  Homer's 
poems,  but  saw  a  practical  difficulty  in  the  "rationes  scho- 
larum,  quibus  quodammodo  ratio  ecclesice  innititur."'*  A  some- 
what similar  union  of  old  and  new  elements  is  presented  in 
Pierre  Bayle's  widely-read  Dictionnaire  historique  et  critique  (1696). 
Bayle  is  reminiscent  of  the  old  school  in  that  he  "passes  his  life 
within  the  walls  and  the  shadows  of  libraries,  in  the  company 
of  learned  journals  and  correspondence,"  and  "regards  the 


1  K.  L.  v.  Roth  quoted  by  Lubker  in  Schmid,  Enzyklopadie,  s.  v.  Gelehrien- 
schu/wesen,  II,  p.  682. 

2  Gesner's  Primes  lineee  isagoges  in  eruditicnem  universalem,  ed.  by  Niclas, 
1774  and  1786,  2  vols.,  contain  in  the  "proormium"    a  "brevis  recensus  di- 
cendorum,"   a  resume  of  the   older  encyclopedias,   and   "prsecepta  discendi 
generalia. "     The  first  part  treats  "de  linguis  sen  philologia":  the  mother- 
tongue,  Latin,  Greek,  modern  languages  (§79  sq.);  of  poetry  (§222  sq.);  of 
music  and  painting  (§277  sq.);  of  oratory  (§418  sq.).     The  second  part  deals 
with  history;  geography  is  treated  in  §418  sq.;  chronology  (§450  sq.);  universal 
history   (§481    sq.)>   the  <£iX<wo0{aj  ^r/xiiroXts,  which   is  divided  into  "historia 
civilis,  ecclesiastica,  litteraria,  miscella. "     The  third  part  deals  with  philoso- 
phy: first,  its  history  (§662  sq.);  next,  psychology,  ontology,  natural  theology, 
logic,  and  ethics  (§823-1536).     The  work  proves  Gesner  a  man  of  vast  eru- 
dition, and  if  he  has  the  interest  of  an  earlier  age  in  literary  curiosities,  he 
never  lets  it  interfere  with  his  practical  purpose.     Unlike  Morhof  (see  supra, 
ch.  XXII),  he  observes  due  moderation  in  the  selection  of  his  materials,  and 
a  certain  gentlemanly  refinement  saves  him  from  the  disorderly  arrangement 
of  the  earlier  polyhistorians.     Herder's  criticism  of  the  book  (printed  in  his 
Sop/iron)  was  unfair  on  many  points.      The  Isagogc  was,  in  matter  of  fact, 
the  divide  between  two  periods  of  classicism. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

world  as  raw  material  for  books."  But  he  is  at  the  same  time 
the  "Father  of  the  Age  of  Criticism,"  for  he  was  the  first  to 
subject  all  traditions  to  the  withering  test  of  the  skeptic's  doubts 
and  to  examine  everything  in  the  white  light  of  cold  reason. 
His  work  is  noteworthy  as  being  the  first  of  the  encyclopedic 
dictionaries  in  which  all  subjects  were  treated  in  alphabetic 
order.  This  method  was  now  universally  adopted  and  rendered 
the  new  encyclopedias  more  serviceable  and  more  popular  than 
the  old,  which  had  invariably  been  arranged  according  to  some 
preconceived  system.  This  change  in  form  is  significant.  The 
unwieldy,  though  scholarly,  arrangement  of  the  earlier  day  had 
to  give  way  to  practical  usefulness;  the  content  had  to  be  made 
easily  accessible;  and  the  labyrinth  of  the  old  school,  the  orbis 
doctrince  is  done  away  with,  and  in  its  stead  came  the  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  externally  unconnected  articles,  which  offered, 
we  may  say,  so  many  pathways  to  the  information  desired. 

The  greatest  of  the  new  encyclopedias  is  the  Encyclopedic  ou 
dictionnaire  raisonne  des  sciences^  des  arts  et  des  metiers^  edited 
by  Diderot  and  cf  Alembert.  It  was  begun  in  1751  and  completed 
in  1772  in  17  volumes  folio  of  text  and  n  volumes  of  illustra- 
tions, and  by  1774  it  was  translated  into  four  languages.  The 
gigantic  undertaking  owed  its  inception  to  the  modest  plan  of 
making  Ephraim  Chambers'  Cyclopedia  (2  vols.,  Dublin,  1728) 
accessible  to  French  readers,  but  in  its  final  form  it  represents 
the  combined  efforts  of  the  leaders  of  the  French  Enlightenment. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  purported  to  present  in  an  accessible  form 
all  the  arts,  sciences,  and  achievements  of  the  race;  but  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  intended  to  steep  the  whole  content  of  the 
circle  of  thought  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Enlightenment.  The 
Encyclopedic  was  at  once  a  storehouse  of  modern  learning  and  a 
battery  of  guns  levelled  at  the  "last  remains  of  the  Middle 
Ages."  It  was  thus  a  monument  to  the  industry  and  the  re- 
fined taste  of  the  French,  as  well  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  "  sainte 
confederation  contre  le  Janatisme  et  la  tyrannic^  as  Cabanis  called 
the  circle  of  the  Encyclopedists.  The  plan  of  the  work,  as 
outlined  in  Diderot's  prospectus  and  in  d'Alembert's  Discours 
preliminaire,  is  based  on  Bacon's  division  of  the  faculties  of  the 
soul.  The  principle  of  history  is  in  t^he  memory,  for  history  re- 
cords past  events;  the  principle  of  the  fine  arts  is  in  the  imagi- 
nation, for  they  -present  sensuous  images;  and  the  principle  of 
philosophy  is  in  the  human  reason,  for  its  function  is  to  judge 
everything.  It  is  significant  that  the  principle  of  the  division 
was  based  on  man,  who  made  the  division,  while  formerly  the 


294  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

division  had  been  based  -on  the  distinctions  suggested  by  the 
matter  that  was  treated.  The  reason  for  this  change  is  not 
far  to  seek.  The  Enlightenment  being  out  and  out  nominalistic, 
recognized  no  content  as  being  valuable  in  itself.  Again,  in 
dealing  with  a  science  one  must  connect  the  criticism  of  it  with 
the  history  of  the  respective  science,  for  in  its  changes  and 
developments  a  science  is,  one  may  say,  criticizing  itself.  Due 
attention  is  given  not  only  to  the  fine  arts,  but  also  to  the 
trades  and  industries;  inventors  are  declared  the  benefactors 
of  the  race,  although  historians  have  only  too  often  failed  to 
acknowledge  this  indebtedness,  while  extolling  the  victorious 
general,  whose  glorious  deeds  are  often  no  more  than  the  butch- 
ering of  his  fellowmen.  The  Encyclopedic  was  intended  to  de- 
velop the  true  principles  of  things,  to  describe  their  relations, 
and  promote  knowledge  and  learning  by  increasing  the  number 
of  scholars,  artists,  and  lovers  of  science.  It  was  to  be  like  a 
landscape  that  is  unlimited  in  extent  and  that  contains  hills, 
cliffs,  rivers,  forests,  etc.,  all  of  which  receive  the  light  from  the 
same  heavens  above,  but  some  more  and  others. less,  because 
some  are  in  the  foreground,  others  in  the  middle  of  the  scene, 
while  still  others  disappear  in  the  distance.  The  Encyclopedic 
was  to  be  for  the  educated  man  a  library  of  all  the  arts  and 
sciences,  and  for  the  specialist  a  library  of  all  learning  outside 
his  own  special  subject. 

While  the  plan  of  the  Encyclopedic  assured  some  unity  in 
the  treatment  of  the  diversified  content,  and  while  the  scholar- 
ship of  its  contributors  guaranteed  its  solid  character,  the  popu- 
lar encyclopedists,  particularly  in  Germany,  produced  only  dis- 
jointed compilations  of  commonplace  materials.  Their  favorite 
occupation  was  the  making  of  children's  encyclopedias  contain- 
ing useful  and  entertaining  information.  As  the  Orbis  pictus 
embodied  in  an  elementary  form  much  of  the  pansophy  of  the 
iyth  century,  so  the  Elementary  Book  ("Elementarwerk")  of 
Basedow  was  the  textbook  to  be  used,  to  the  age  of  1 5  years,  for 
teaching  the  polymathy  of  the  Enlightenment.  It  is  avowedly 
an  imitation  of  the  Orbis  pictus,  but  written  in  an  entirely  differ- 
ent spirit,  as  it  substitutes  for  the  Christian  views  of  Comenius 
the  Deism  of  the  period  and  also  discards  Comenius'  basic 
relationship  to  language  instruction.  In  form  the  Elementary 
Book  is  likewise  inferior  to  the  Orbis  pictus.  Where  Comenius 
was  concise,  Basedow  is  diffuse  and  wordy;  and  the  illustra- 
tions, too,  are  hardly  an  improvement  over  Comenius'  work. 
In  their  treatment  of  the  different  subjects  they  follow  no  system 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

whatever,  and  in  presenting  the  .non-sensuous  in  pictures  they 
are  more  ingeniously  vulgar  than  even  the  illustrated  Janua.1 
4.  The  tendency  of  the  i8th  century  to  make  knowledge  a 
common  property  of  the  masses  showed  itself  not  only  in  the 
publication  of  encyclopedias,  but  also  in  the  popular  treatment 
of  individual  sciences.  The  gulf  that  had  hitherto  existed  be- 
tween the  books  for  the  learned  and  those  for  the  general  public, 
was  bridged  over,  and  the  writers  appealed  less  to  the  select 
circle  of  the  learned  and  more  to  the  educated  public  in  general, 
and  regarded  less  the  objective  value  of  a  book  than  its  appeal 
to  the  multitude.  This  change  cannot  be  explained  solely  on 
the  ground  of  the  prevailing  tendency  toward  the  enlightenment 
of  the  masses,  but  is  the  result,  at  least  in  part,  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  national  literatures,  for  these  now  employed  prose 
(after  having  begun  with  poetry  in  the  Renaissance)  for  both 
artistic  and  scientific  purposes.  As  long  as  Latin  was  the  lan- 
guage of  science,  the  scholar  rested  satisfied  with  seeing  his 
books  in  the  hands  of  the  learned  few.  But  now  that  the  sciences 
had  come  to  speak  English,  French,  and  German,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  higher  learning  strove  to  catch  the  ear  of  the  popu- 
lace, both  by  offering  matter  of  present-day  interest  and  by 
writing  in  a  style  suited  to  the  taste  of  the  man  in  the  street. 
This  nationalizing  and  popularizing  of  the  sciences  had,  how- 
ever, some  obvious  disadvantages.  The  solidarity  of  scientific 
research,  established  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  fostered  by  the 
culture  of  the  Renaissance,  was  now  destroyed,  and  certain 
departments  of  learning  were,  in  consequence,  isolated  from  the 
rest — German  philosophy  has  ever  since  developed  independ- 

1  The  cost  of  publication  of  the  Elementary  Book  was  defrayed  by  popular 
subscription.  Money  poured  in  from  all  sides — from  Germany,  Switzerland, 
the  northern  countries,  from  high  and  low — and  the  work  appeared  in  1774 
and  1785  with  illustrations  by  Chodowiecki.  The  nine  books  (3  vols.)  of  the 
1785  edition  treat  the  following  subjects:  B.  T,  "Only  for  older  friends  of  chil- 
dren": pedagogical  rules,  sketch  of  the  schools  of  Alethinia  (*'.  e.,  land  of  truth, 
a  pedagogical  Utopia),  etc.;  B.  II,  "Of  sundry  matters,  especially  of  man  and 
the  soul";  here  is  the  much-abused  sexual  instruction  for  children;  B.  Ill, 
"Generally  useful  logic";  B.  IV,  of  religion,  a  popular  treatise  on  "natural 
religion"  and  a  sketch  of  the  historical  religions;  B.  V.  ethics:  proverbs,  stories, 
fables,  precepts  of  virtue;  B.  VI,  of  the  occupations  and  classes  of  men;  B.  VII, 
the  elements  of  history:  a)  first  principles  of  government,  illustrated,  in  part, 
by  stories;  b)  and  c)  geography;  d)  and  e)  matters  from  universal  history  in 
chronological  arrangement;  f)  mythology  and  fables;  g)  heraldic  lore;  h)  mean- 
ing and  connection  of  the  historical  sciences;  B.  VIII,  and  IX,  natural  sciences. 
A  supplementary  volume,  the  fourth,  containing  Book  X,  treated  the  essentials 
of  grammar  and  rhetoric.  96  plates  by  Chodowiecki  illustrated  Books  II-IX. 


296  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

ently  of  Anglo-French  thought.  Further  effects  are  the  striving 
for  the  popularity  of  the  hour,  and  sham  education  which  is  the 
inevitable  result  of  sham  science.  Fichte  denounced,  in  his 
attack  on  Fr.  Nicolai,  the  dangers  inherent  in  popular  science: 
"Men  were  proud  that  they  had  at  last  learned  to  write  Ger- 
man, and  were  anxious  to  have  everybody  understand  what 
they  wrote,  and  so  they  wrote  on  every  conceivable  subject 
in  such  a  manner  that  a  knowledge  of  German  did,  indeed, 
suffice  to  understand  their  books.  The  style  was  the  sum  and 
substance  of  a  book,  and  the  content  must  needs  adapt  itself  to 
the  expression.  If  something  could  not  be  expressed  so  as  to 
be  perfectly  intelligible  to  the  lady  half-asleep  at  her  dressing 
table,  it  was  not  worth  saying;  and  as  all  that  was  learned  was 
learned  merely  for  the  purpose  of  saying  it,  it  was  not  learned 
at  all;  so  that  eventually  all  abstruse  and  difficult  questions 
were  scorned  as  hair-splitting  and  over-refinement.  In  brief,  to 
popularize  all  science  became  the  order  of  the  day,  and  hence- 
forth popularity  was  the  criterion  of  the  true,  the  useful,  and  of 
all  that  was  worth  knowing."  Still,  it  were  unfair  to  consider 
only  the  dark  side  of  this  popularizing  tendency.  There  were 
some  real  advantages  connected  with  this  passing  of  the  sciences 
from  the  narrow  confinement  of  the  schools.  That  the  sciences 
were  thus  brought  into  intimate  relationship  with  the  life  and 
spirit  of  the  people,  and  that,  consequently,  scientific  research 
and  the  practical  and  public  life  of  the  world  began  to  influence 
each  other — these  facts  could  not  fail  to  improve  modern  edu- 
cation. 

Popular  philosophy  assumed  the  leading  role  in  this  move- 
ment. Locke  is  the  father  of  English  Sensualism,  and  his 
philosophy  addressed  itself  less  to  scholars  and  thinkers  than 
to  those  who  found  pleasure  in  reasoning  out  simple  problems. 
Many  French  writers  followed  his  example  and  proclaimed 
themselves  "philosophers  for  the  world;"  the  society  of  Paris 
and  its  aesthetes  constituted  their  audience,  and  without  these 
they  could  not  have  existed.  In  Germany  philosophy  proceeds 
from  the  schools  and  finally  also  returns  to  them,  but  during  the 
intervening  period  it  exerted  an  influence  far  beyond  the  schools, 
and  even  when  apparently  confined  to  the  schoolroom,  it  con- 
tinued to  influence  the  national  life  indirectly.  Wolff's  system 
prevailed  in  the  lecture  halls  during  the  first  half  of  the  century, 
and  the  eclecticism  of  Mendelssohn,  Garve,  Engel,  and  others 
is  based  on  it.  To  some  extent,  the  philosophy  of  Kant  leads 
back  to  the  school  reform,  but  at  the  same  time  it  stimulated 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT.   2Q7 

and  even  aroused  whole  classes  of  the  nation.  Philosophy  in 
general  exerted  a  deep  influence  on  the  education  of  the  period: 
it  supplied  some  of  the  content  of  education  and  also  outlined 
some  of  the  educational  methods.  This  was  to  be  expected  of 
the  philosophy  of  a  period  that  claimed  the  right  to  inquire  how 
the  individual  might,  through  enlightenment  and  the  fullest 
development  of  his  own  personality,  obtain  happiness,  or,  as 
Kant  would  have  it,  the  autonomous  fulfillment  of  duty.  Such 
a  philosophy  did  more  than  promote  the  development  of  peda- 
gogy, for  it  had  itself  a  pedagogical  tendency  which,  though 
confined  to  the  education  of  the  individual,  still  fostered  a 
lively  interest  in  education  as  such. 

5.  Owing  to  the  influence  of  popular  philosophy,  three  groups 
of  sciences  received  a  new  form  and  were  thus  added  to  the  list 
of  cultural  studies:  the  historico-political  sciences,  polite  liter- 
ature, and  the  natural  sciences.  Though  the  world-view  of  the 
Enlightenment  lacked  all  historical  basis,  and  though  the  period 
did  not  think  it  necessary  to  look  in  the  past  for  the  causes  of 
present  conditions,  still  the  universal  tendency  of  the  time  to 
throw  light  on  each  and  everything  under  the  sun  could  not 
ignore  the  claims  of  history.  The  Enlightenment  undertook  a 
complete  revision  of  the  traditional  conception  and  treatment 
of  history;  a  deeper  influence  on  life  was  assigned  to  natural 
conditions  and  environment;  the  development  of  intelligence  was 
asserted  to  be  the  main  factor  of  historical  progress,  and  the 
wise  men  of  the  race,  the  inventors  and  discoverers,  received  as 
large  a  treatment  as  kings,  statesmen,  and  generals.  The  so- 
called  "history  of  civilization"  (Kulturgeschichte)  is  an  invention 
of  the  1 8th  century.  The  term  "philosophy  of  history"  dates 
also  from  the  same  period,  but  denotes,  not  a  new  field  of 
speculation,  but  only  that  the  human  reason  is  to  deal  with  the 
facts  of  history,  and  that  the  theological  considerations  of 
earlier  times  are,  therefore,  out  of  place  in  the  interpretation  of 
the  past.  Voltaire's  Essai  sur  les  moeurs  et  F  esprit  des  nations 
is  the  first  work  written  in  the  new  spirit,  and  set  the  fashion 
for  all  similar  undertakings.  Former  historians  had  never  given 
much  attention  to  customs  and  morals,  and  on  this  head  con- 
tented themselves  with  giving  a  few  anecdotes  for  the  curi- 
ous. Now,  however,  this  department  of  history  was  correlated 
with  the  present,  and  was  made  the  occasion  for  general  ob- 
servations and  reflections,  some  of  a  high  order,  but  many,  too, 
just  plain  palaver  and  lip-wisdom.  Imitating  Voltaire,  the  salons 
looked  with  admiring  eyes  upon  the  civilization  of  China,  had 


2Q8  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

only  a  smile  of  contempt  for  the  superstition,  the  misery,  and 
the  crimes  of  the  "Dark  Ages,"  and  glowed  with  enthusiasm 
for  their  own  progress  in  the  industries  and  arts  of  peace.  After 
Rousseau  had  pointed  to  the  primitive  forest  as  being  the  start- 
ing-point in  history,  the  philosophers  made  the  primitive  races 
the  subject  of  intensive  studies,  for  here  they  hoped  to  find  the 
beginnings  of  civilization,  and  the  ladies  of  the  salons  grew 
enthusiastic  over  the  Patagonians  and  South  Sea  Islanders. 

Montesquieu,  hailed  by  Madame  Pompadour  as  the  "Law- 
give'r  of  Europe,"  is  responsible  for  the  popularizing  of  the 
political  sciences.  Of  his  Esprit  des  lois  20  editions  appeared  in 
1 8  months,  and  of  its  influence  on  the  nation  a  contemporary 
writes:  "It  has  revolutionized  the  spirit  of  the  nation;  all  men  of 
talent  are  now  discussing  political  matters,  and  politics  has  be- 
come a  department  of  philosophy. "  The  higher  classes  studied 
the  English  constitution,  the  rights  of  parliaments,  and  also 
questions  of  political  economy  as  well  as  the  opposition  between 
the  physiocrats  and  the  mercantilists;  and  thus  political  writers 
had  a  large  reading  public.  Rousseau  introduced  a  fantastic 
and  radical  tendency  into  the  discussion  of  the  problems  of  the 
State  and  society.  He  also  dragged  in  the  large  subject  of  edu- 
cation, and  declared  it  to  be  the  best  means  for  correcting  the 
abuses  of  civilization.  The  French,  however,  soon  abandoned 
the  discussion  of  educational  problems  in  favor  of  politico-social 
questions.  But  the  Germans  studied  the  subject  of  education 
the  more:  a  special  literature  of  education  was  the  result,  and 
poets  and  philosophers,  scholars  and  statesmen,  wrote  upon 
education. 

6.  Polite  literature,  even  if  held  in  high  repute  in  the  Ren- 
aissance, remained  restricted  to  the  higher  schools  until  the 
Enlightenment  set  it  free.  The  classics  of  both  ancient  and 
modern  literatures  were  now  interpreted  according  to  the  canons 
of  a  refined  and  cultured  taste.  The  new  criticism  comple- 
mented poetics  and  rhetoric  by  controlling  the  literary  output 
of  the  day,  but  too  often  it  went  beyond  the  mere  control  and 
directed — and  not  always  aright — the  course  of  literature.  In 
the  field  of  criticism  the  need  of  fixed  principles  gave  birth  to 
the  new  science  of  aesthetics,2  whose  first  principles  were  taken 

1  Grimm  in  the  Litterarische  Korrespondenz,  I,- 2,  p.  74,  quoted  by  H.  Hett-  • 
ner,  Literaturgesc hichte  des  18.  Jahrhunderts,  Brunswick,  1865,  II,  p.  260. 

2  The  word  was  first  used  for  the  science  of  the  beautiful  by  Baumgarten, 
a  disciple  of  Wolff,  in  his  Msthetica  (1750)  to  designate  the  science  of  sensuous 
knowledge,  the  goal  of  which  is  beauty,  in  contrast  with  logic  whose  goal  is 


THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT.   2QQ 

from  the  philosophy  then  taught  in  the  schools — Batteux  fol- 
lowed the  teachings  of  Aristotle;  and  Baumgarten,  those  of 
Aristotle  and  Christian  Wolff.  The  German  classicists  had  soon 
left  these  beginnings  behind,  and  created  their  own  organon  of 
appreciation  and  interpretation.  They  possessed  both  the  power 
of  poetic  creation  and  the  delicate  and  discriminating  sense  of 
interpreting  their  own  works,  and  consequently  their  writings 
have  proved  a  national  school,  not  only  for  the  enjoyment  of 
beauty,  but  also  for  its  artistic  interpretation.  The  ancients,  as 
well  as  the  writers  of  the  Renaissance,  had  confined  themselves 
in  aesthetical  criticism  to  poetry  and  oratory.  But  in  the  period 
of  the  Enlightenment  the  works  of  the  arts  of  design  were  also 
examined  critically  and  studied  aesthetically,  and  thus  the  his- 
tory of  art  began  to  be  cultivated  extensively.  Winckelmann 
led  the  way  in  organizing  the  archeological  materials,  and 
unearthed  the  wonderland  of  ancient  art.  Lessing  was  the 
pioneer  in  the  comparative  study  of  art.  Herder  and  Goethe 
demonstrated  the  universal  character  of  poetry  and  art.  Schil- 
ler, basing  his  first  principles  on  Kant,  tried  to  outline  the  moral 
aims  of  art,  and  thus  connected  aesthetics  with  practical  phi- 
losophy, while  the  others  made  it  a  department  of  the  history 
of  civilization.  All  these  efforts  are  controlled  by  the  sub- 
jectivism of  the  period.  The  beautiful  is  npt  considered  as  a 
good  which  the  human  mind  strives  to  create  and  which  is 
itself  a  reflection  of  higher  and  greater  things;  instead,  it  is 
regarded  merely  as  an  instrument  for  perfecting  the  faculties 
of  the  individual.  Winckelmann  stands  alone  in  upholding  the 
former  and  deeper  view,  first  •  propounded  by  Plato;  and  the 
fine  historical  sense  distinguishing  his  history  of  art  proves  him 
superior  to  all  his  contemporaries. 

Philosophical,  aesthetical,  and  practical  considerations 
prompted  the  educators  of  the  period  to  add  the  natural  sci- 
ences to  the  course  of  general  education.  The  materialists 
declared  the  study  of  nature  to  be  the  basis  of  the  science  of 
man  and  the  foundation  of  their  world-view,  and,  to  meet  their 
objections,  their  opponents  had  likewise  to  study  the  natural 
sciences.  The  salons  showed  a  deep  interest  in  the  observatories 

truth.  "Kant  objected  to  this  use  of  the  term,  and  used  transcendental  aes- 
thetic to  denote  the  a  priori  principle  of  sensible  experience,  namely  time  and 
space.  Hegel  (1820-1830)  elaborated  a  science  of  the  fine  arts  which  he  called 
with  some  protest  jEsthetik,  and  won  so  much  approval  For  his  work  that  since 
his  time  the  word  in  his  sense  is  generally  adopted. "  Webster's  New  Inter- 
national Dictionary,  1910,  s.  v.  (esthetics. 


3OO  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

and  laboratories,  for  of  them  they  expected  a  solution  of  the 
most  difficult  problems.  The  spirited  and  graceful  style  of  the 
French  naturalists  was  an  important  factor  in  popularizing  the 
natural  sciences.  Buffon  was  the  first  to  attempt  what  then 
might  well  have  seemed  impossible,  to  treat  a  science  (hitherto 
regarded  as  dry  and  as  Greek  to  every  one  except  the  savant) 
in  a  manner  interesting  and  intelligible  to  the  general  reader. 
Yet  he  succeeded  in  his  ambitious  project,  for  his  natural  history 
is  French  literature;  and  his  success  illustrates  the  truth  of  his 
contention  that  a  writer's  immortality  is  based,  not  on  his 
wealth  of  knowledge,  nor  on  the  mass  of  astounding  facts  he 
has  recorded,  nor  the  discoveries  he  has  made — because  these 
things  are  external  to  the  man  himself — but  that  his  fame  rests 
on  what  is  most  truly  himself — his  style.  At  the  same  time  the 
Encyclopedic  also  spread  broadcast  much  valuable  knowledge  of 
the  applied  sciences,  and  prepared  men  to  accept  Bacon's  view 
of  the  end  of  man:  to  conquer  nature  by  learning  its  secrets. 
Educators  began  to  recognize  that  the  natural  sciences  had 
grown  to  be  a  power  which  had  to  be  reckoned  with  in  practical 
life,  and  the  leaders  of  the  Enlightenment  perceived  the  need  of 
establishing  a  proper  relationship  between  the  mechanical  arts 
(which  had  been  much  advanced  by  the  discoveries  made  in  the 
natural  sciences)  and  general  education. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
The  School  Reform  of  the  i8th  Century. 

i.  The  very  principle  of  the  Enlightenment  prompted  a 
reform  of  the  school  system.  And  a  reform  was  actually  needed: 
the  forms  of  government,  the  administration  of  justice,  economic 
relations,  were  being  reconstructed  all  over  Europe,  and  hence 
the  system  of  education  had  also  to  be  reorganized  in  order  to 
correspond  to  the  changed  conditions.  Some  changes,  though 
not  to  the  same  extent,  were  made  in  the  school  systems  of  all 
the  European  countries.  Some  nations  remained  faithful  to  the 
educational  traditions  of  the  past,  and  allowed  the  educational 
reformers  only  so  much  range  as  was  compatible  with  them. 
But  other  countries  broke  away,  from  their  educational  tradi- 
tions, and  tried  out  novel  and  revolutionary  experiments.  A 
third  class  of  nations  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  a  connecting 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  l8TH  CENTURY.        30 1 

bond  between  the  old  and  the  new,  so  that  the  continuity  and 
solidarity  with  the  past  was  not  destroyed;  and  in  these  countries 
the  reforms  introduced  did  not  interfere  with  the  uniform  and 
steady  development  of  the.  schools. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  schools  of  England,  though  that 
country  was  the  first  home  of  the  Enlightenment  and  of  the  new 
ideas  in  education,  were  only  slightly  influenced  by  the  reform 
movement.  Locke  had  recommended  that  the  schools  for  the 
sons  of  the  gentry  should  attend  more  to  what  was  practically 
useful  than  to  the  study  of  the  classics.1  But  he  found  as  few 
sympathizers  with  this  view  as  with  the  other,  to  substitute 
private  education  for  the  public  schools;  for  the  Latin  schools 
continued  in  universal  favor,  and  David  Williams'  plan  of  re- 
form, based  on  Locke,  found  more  interest  among  the  Philan- 
thropinists  of  Germany  than  among  his  own  countrymen.2  Adam 
Smith,  the  father  of  English  political  economy,  favored  the  edu- 
cation of  the  masses  as  increasing  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  but 
met  with  little  encouragement  when  he  suggested  a  system  of 
national  education.  His  followers  fared  no  better  than  he.  The 
English  people  were  too  jealous  of  the  power  of  the  State  to 
grant  the  monopoly  of  education  or  the  control  of  the  individual 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  enforce  attendance  at  the  public  schools. 
The  education  of  the  lower  classes  was  left  to  the  initiative  of 
private  organizations,  and  the  poor  schools  were  not  considered 
as  a  part  of  the  state  system  of  education,  but  as  belonging  to 
the  charitable  activity  of  individual  societies.3  "The  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,"  founded  in  1698,  opened 
free  schools  for  the  poor;  the  Sunday  schools,  existing  since 
1761,  were  much  assisted  and  increased  in  number  by  the  "Soci- 
ety for  the  Support  and  Encouragement  of  Sunday  Schools," 
founded  in  1785  by  Robert  Raikes.  Both  kinds  of  schools  did 
not  go  beyond  the  scope  of  the  early  Christian  elementary 
school,  but  in  organization  they  were  hardly  equal  to  the  paro- 
chial and  sexton  schools  of  the  Continent. 


1  Cf.  J.  H.  Newman,  Idea  of  a  University ,  New  York,  1902,  pp.  158-160. 

2  A  Treatise  on  Education,  in  which  the  general  Method  pursued  in  the  public 
Institutions  of  Europe;  and  particularly  in  those  of  England;  that  of  Milton, 
Locke,  Rousseau^  and  Helvetius  are  considered,  and  a  more  practicable  and  useful 
one  proposed.     By  David  Williams,  London,  Payne,  1774.     A  German  trans- 
lation, by  Trapp,  was  published  in  1781,  and  was  reviewed  in  the  All^emeine 
deutsche  Bibliothek,    Bd.   51,    I.  Halfte.      The  English  original  was  reviewed 
in  the  Monthly  Review  or  Literary  Journal,  Vol.  LI,  London,  1774,  pp.  254-260. 

3  Stein,  Verwaltungslehre,  V,  p.  93. 


3O2  THE   ENLIGHTENMENT. 

2.  The  reform  of  the  French  schools  was  not  yet  complete 
when  the  Revolution  set  in.  The  new  tendencies  and  ideas  had 
found  favor  with  the  higher  classes  of  French  society^  and 
were  fully  developed  in  the  salons — the  bureaux  d' esprit  as  they 
were  humorously  called.  The  wits  of  society  were  interested 
not  only  in  political  events,  the  latest  books,  and  the  new  works 
of  art,  but  also  in  the  deep  problems  of  the  sciences.  "Philo- 
sophical inquiry  was  the  centre  of  interest  in  the  salons,  and 
all  that  met  there,  wished  to  arrive,  by  means  of  public  and 
many-sided  discussion,  at  clear  views.  Moral  and  aesthetical 
questions  were  always  popular,  but  in  the  early  fifties  philosophy 
commanded  the  greatest  interest,  and  in  the  sixties  this  gave 
way  to  political  economy,  and  in  the  seventies,  to  questions  of 
government."  The  Enlightenment  of  the  salons  consisted  in 
being  at  home  in  the  questions  of  the  day  and  in  the  world-view 
that  had  done  away  with  all  traditions.  This  Enlightenment 
was  of  such  a  character  as  forbade  its  being  introduced  into  the 
schools  of  the  young;  even  the  most  advanced  thinkers  could 
not  seriously  entertain  the  plan  of  making  the  young  as  frivo- 
lous and  as  critical  in  art  and  religion  as  were  the  mesdames 
and  the  messieurs  of  the  salons.  Thus  the  representatives  of 
the  most  advanced  thought  had  no  direct  interest  in  the  schools, 
and  left  these  to  the  hands  of  the  statesmen  to  do  with 
them  as  best  suited  their  own  plans.  The  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits,  the  "Revolution  of  1762,"  was  made  the  occasion  for 
inaugurating  a  series  of  radical  reforms.  All  education  was  to 
be  secularized,  though  the  unity  of  the  school  system  as  handed 
down  from  the  past  was  to  be  retained;  but  the  control  was  to 
be  taken  from  the  clergy  and  to  be  committed  to  a  "secular 
hierarchy"  which  derived  all  its  authority  from  the  State.2 
The  plan  of  President  Rolland,  submitted  to  Parliament  in 
1768,  adopted,  with  regard  to  the  subject-matter  of  teaching, 
the  principles  of  Rollin  and  the  Jansenistic  traditions  of  Port- 
Royal.  Four  grades  of  school  are  mentioned:  the  village  school; 
the  preparatory  college  (demi-colleges)  with  two  or  three  classes 
and  instruction  in  religion,  ethics,  the  mother-tongue,  and  the 
elements  of  Greek  and  Latin;  the  full  college  (colleges  de  plein 
exercice)-  and  the  university.  The  teachers  are  to  be  seculars 

1  Rosenkranz,  Diderot,  II,  p.  83. 

2  H.   Compayre,  Histoire  critique  des  doctrines  de  /'education  en  France, 
Paris,  1879,  II,  pp.  2-39  sq.  and  273;  "Les  parlamentaires  empruntaient  aux 
Jesuites  ce  que  1'institut  des  Jesuites  avait  d'excellent:  1'unite  et  la  suite  dans 
les  methodes,  la  discipline  et  la  hierarchic." 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  l8TH  CENTURY.        303 

exclusively  and  to  be  trained  in  an  ecole  normale  des  profes- 
seurs;  the  capital  of  the  country -is  to  be  the  governing  centre 
of  the  school  system;  and  the  bureau  de  correspondance,  the 
centre  of  administration.  -La  Chalotais'  plan  for  a  national 
system  of  education1  is  even  more  closely  correlated  with  the 
tendencies  of  the  period.  He  regards  the  greatest  possible  pub- 
lic benefit  as  the  aim  of  public  education.  The  national  principle 
should  hold  in  religious  instruction  also.  The  system  of  morality 
and  its  teachings  are  to  be  secularized.  Nature  is  to  be  the  guid- 
ing star  in  instruction,  and  all  schooling  should  begin  with  the 
training  of  the  senses.  The  ancient  languages  offer  nothing  of 
permanent  and  solid  worth,  and  chief  attention  should  be  given 
to  the  study  of  modern  languages.  Of  history,  too,  the  modern 
periods  are  the  most  useful;  the  children  should  learn  reading, 
writing,,  and  reasoning  from  a  collection  of  s'tories  to  be  written 
by  philosophers.  La  Chalotais  is  opposed  to  the  education  of 
the  masses,  because  it  would  estrange  the  laboring  classes  from 
their  proper  vocation;  and  he  attacks  the  Brothers  of  the  Chris- 
tian Schools  for  teaching  the  children  of  the  poor  to  read  and 
write  instead  of  how  to  use  the  plane  and  file.  He  considers 
the  carrying  out  of  his  ideas  as  fraught  with  no  difficulties,  the 
only  requirement  being  a  supply  of  teachers  and  books,  but 
particularly  of  the  latter,  which  are  to  be  compiled  (compiler) 
by  men  of  thought;  the  King  would  only  have  to  approve  his 
plans,  and  in  two  years  all  schools  would  be  in  working  order. 
In  reality,  however,  it  took  almost  two  decades  before  the  re- 
forms were  carried  out,  and  even  then  the  movement  was  im- 
peded by  the  stormy  times  and  wasted  its  energy  on  fruitless 
efforts;  and  it  was  only  at 'the  beginning  of  the  I9th  century 
that  the  new  ideas  could  finally  be  realized. 

3.  Each  new  phase  of  the  Revolution  gave  birth  to  some 
new  plan  for  the  national  educational  system  which  was  to  be 
tried  out  first  in  France  and  later  in  all  other  countries.  All 
these  plans — shortlived  they  all  were — are  now  again  of  some 
interest,  since  the  present  educational  policy  of  the  French  is 
reviving  some  of  these  earlier  projects.  The  views  of  Mirabeau, 
as  expressed  in  his  posthumous  work,  Travail  sur  ^instruction 
publique,  are  surprisingly  moderate.  He  demands  liberty  of  in- 
struction for  the  secular  teachers,  but  would  grant  the  same 


1  Essai  d' education  nationale  ou  plan  d 'etude  pour  la  jeunesse  par  Messire 
Louis  Rene  de  Caradeux  de  la  Chalotais,  Procureur-gen£ral  du  Roi  au  Parle- 
ment  de  Bretagne,  Geneve,  I76j. 


3O4  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

to  the  religious  teachers  also;  the  State  can  not  make  instruction 
compulsory,  because  it  can  not  impose  greater  burdens  than  are 
necessary  for  the  liberty  and  security  of  all.     He  attaches  little 
importance  to  the  unity  of  the  educational  system.  All  higher 
schools  are  to  be  patterned  after  a  national  lyceum.  The  second- 
ary schools  are  to  devote  two  years  to  the  ancient  languages, 
two  to  the  study  of  oratory,  and  two  to  the  study  of  philosophy 
and   the   exact   sciences.     The   Constituent   Assembly   commis- 
sioned Talleyrand  to  outline  a  system  of  education  to  correspond 
to  the  direction  laid  down  by  the  Constitution  of  Sept.  3,  1791: 
"II   sera  cr£6  et  organise  une  Instruction  publique,  commune  a 
tous  les  citoyens,  gratuite  a  l'egard  des  parties  d'enseignement 
indispensables  pour  tous  les  hommes  et  dont  les  £tablissements 
seront  distribu£s  gfaduellement  dans  un  rapport  combine  avec 
la   division   du   royaume. "     Talleyrand   proposed   a   system   of 
four  grades  of  schools:  the  primary,  or  canton,  schools  are  to 
teach  all  that  is  necessary  for  each  and  everyone;  the  secondary, 
or  district,  schools  should  develop  more  fully  the  mental  facul- 
ties; the  department  schools  are  to  fit  their  students  for  the 
four  learned  professions;  and  the  "Institut"  is  to  be  the  cap- 
stone of  the  whole  system.     All  schools  must  adopt  the  Cate- 
chism of  the  Rights  of  Man,  and  the  higher  schools  must  teach 
mathematics,  the  art  of  thinking,  the  -history  of  free  peoples, 
and   philosophical   ethics.     The   schools   are   open    to    all,   and 
every  citizen  has  the  right  to  open  a  school  that  is  not  contrary 
to  law.     The  Memoir  was  read  Sept.  loth  and  nth,  and  on  the 
3<Dth  of  the  same  month  the  Assembly  was  dissolved.     It  was 
succeeded  by  the  Legislative  Assembly,  which  formulated   the 
problem  thus:  "L'instruction  est  le  besoin  de  tous;  la  societe 
doit  favoriser  de  tout  son  pouvoir  le  progres  de  la  raison  publique 
et  mettre  1'instruction  a  la  portee  de  tous  les  citoyens."     The 
Legislative  Assembly  entrusted  Condorcet  with  the  making  of  a 
new  plan,  and  his  plan  was  submitted  April  20,   1792.     It  is 
inspired  by  the  "principles  of  philosophy  which  are  free  from 
the  bonds  of  tradition  and,  therefore,  enlighten  the  present  age, 
but  promise  for  the  future  even  greater  light,  thereby  assuring 
to  future  generations  the  necessary  progress  of  the  human  race. " 
The  education  of  the  whole  country  is  apportioned  among  five 
classes  of  schools.     Every  village  of  TOO  inhabitants  is  to  have  a 
primary  school;  and  every  city  of  4,000  or  more  inhabitants,  a 
secondary  school.     In  the  secondary  schools  the  following  sub- 
jects are  to  be  taught:  orthography;  history  of  France  and  the 
neighboring  countries;  the  elements  of  the  mechanical  arts,  of 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  l8TH  CENTURY.        305 

commercial  science,  and  drawing;  ethics;  sociology;  applied 
mathematics;  and  natural  history.  Institutes,  to  the  number 
of  1 10,  are  to  teach  the  useful  sciences,  particularly  mathematics 
and  physics,  but  of  Latin  only  so  much  as  is  needed  for  reading 
Latin  books,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  Condorcet,  a  smattering  of 
Latin  will  suffice  for  that.  Nine  lyceums  are  to  take  the  place 
of  the  universities,  and  the  national  society  of  the  arts  and 
sciences  is  the  capstone  of  the  educational  system.  All  in- 
struction is  founded  on  the  virtues  of  the  citizen,  and,  conse- 
quently, belongs  to  the  State;  but  education  is  still  left  to  the 
individual.  The  National  Convention  abolished  even  the  latter 
limitation,  and  so  made  the  State  omnipotent  in  matters  edu- 
cational. Lepelletier  submitted,  on  July  13,  1793,  a  plan  for  a 
nation-wide  compulsory  system  of  education  modelled  after  the 
Spartan  system.  Of  this  plan  Robespierre  said  that  it  was 
inspired  by  the  genius  of  humanity. 

Not  one  of  these  projects,  which  posthaste  succeeded  one 
another,  was  ever  carried  out.  However,  the  universities,  col- 
leges, and  the  parochial  elementary  schools  were  suppressed  by 
the  National  Convention.  Of  the  educational  foundations  of  the 
Revolution,  only  two  have  continued  in  existence:  the  Ecole 
normale  in  Paris  and  the  Ecole  polytechnique.  After  order  had 
been  restored,  it  was  found  necessary  to  build  up  a  system  of 
schools  from  the  very  foundation.  From  the  ruins  of  the  French 
school  system  arose  the  Napoleonic  Universite  which  embraced 
all  the  educational  institutions  of  the  country,  and  which  was, 
in  a  way,  a  magnificent  creation,  since  it  contained  some  of  the 
best  elements  of  the  past:  the  co-operation  of  the  clergy,  the 
classical  studies,  the  system  of  faculties,  and  represented  at  the 
same  time  a  centralized  state  system  of  education  comprising 
the  elementary  school  and  the  university.1 

4.  The  French  Enlightenment  gave  the  impulse  to  the  re- 
form of  the  schools  of  Latin  Europe  as  well  as  of  Poland  and 
Russia.  There  was  an  interchange  of  educational,  ideas  between 


1  The  educational  schemes  of  the  Revolution  have  been  the  subject  of  the 
most  varied  and  even  contradictory  criticism:  Thery  (Histcire  de  I' education 
en  France,  Paris,  1861,  II,  p.  188)  does  not  think  them  deserving  of  being 
looked  into:  "On  n'etudie  pas  le  vide,  on  n'analyse  pas  le  neant. "  Compayre 
treats  them  at  great  length  (Histoire  critique  des  doctrines  de  /'education  en 
France,  Paris,  1879,  II,  p.  281  sq.);  but  in  his  extravagant  praise  he  goes  to 
the  opposite  extreme.  Much  information  is  contained  in  Guillaume's  article 
Convention  in  Buisson's  Dictionnaire  de  pedagogie,  and  in  Dreyfus-Brisac's 
article  in  the  Revue  Internationale  de  t'enseignement,  1881,  Nos.  n  ft. 
20 


3O6  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

France  and  Sardinia:  the  reforms  of  Charles  Emmanuel  (1730- 
1773)  were  suggested  by  the  centralizing  tendencies  of  the 
French  kings;  and  the  University  of  Turin,  founded  by  the 
Sardinian  king  in  1771,  led  Napoleon  to  establish  in  France  a 
similar  educational  corporation.1  In  Naples,  Genovesi  and  Fi- 
langieri  promoted  a  centralized  system  of  secular  schools;  the 
former  was  actuated  more  by  reasons  of  national  economy,  and 
the  latter,  by  his  view  of  state  rights.  But  both  were  one  in 
pointing  to  the  ancients  as  models  in  this  regard.  Genovesi, 
following  Plato  (Polit.,  p.  261),  considers  the  art  of  government 
as  analogous  to  the  keeping  of  herds  (dyeXaioT/oo</>ia)  and  would 
introduce  the  athletic  games  and  the  police  surveillance  of  the 
ancients.  Filangieri's  plan  is  largely  based  on  Spartan  models.2 
These  two  writers  exerted  a  deep  influence  on  the  reforms  of 
Tanucci.  In  Portugal,  Pombal  was  most  violent  in  reforming 
educational  conditions.  In  17^9  he  expelled  the  Jesuits  from 
their  24  colleges  and  17  residences.  Their  place  was  to  be  filled 
by  27  schools  of  philosophy,  21  chairs  of  rhetoric,  history,  and 
literature,  8  Greek  schools,  and  250  elementary  Latin  schools. 
A  bureau  of  education,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Rector  of 
Coimbra  University,  was  to  control  all  schools;  and  a  special 
tax,  "subsidio  litterario,"  was  levied  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
the  schools.3  In  Spain,  Aranda  and  Campomanes  worked  in  the 
same  spirit,  though  with  somewhat  less  violence;  for  they  did 
not  disturb  the  universities,  nor  the  teaching  orders  of  the 
Church,  except  the  Jesuits  with  whom  the  revolutionary  spirit 
of  the  age  could  never  be  at  peace.  Poland  and  Russia  accepted 
the  French  educational  ideas  unconditionally,  and  the  leaders 
of  the  Enlightenment  hoped  to  realize  their  dreams  in  these  two 
countries.  J.  J.  Rousseau  outlined  plans  for  reforming  the  gov- 
ernment as  well  as  the  schools  of  Poland:  the  young  are  to  be 
taught  patriotism  and  the  proper  use  of  liberty;  foreigners  as 
well  as  priests  are  to  be  excluded  from  the  teaching  profession; 
the  teaching  office  is  to  be  made  a  stepping-stone  to  higher 
things,  and  not  a  life  work,  because  the  "homme  publique"  has 
no  vocation  for  life  except  to  be  a  "citoyen";  every  school 
should  have  a  ground  for  public  drills;  certain  educational  in- 
stitutions are  to  be  faithful  reproductions,  on  a  small  scale,  of 


1  Hahn,  Das  Unterrlchtswesen  in  Frankreich,  Breslau,  1848,  I,  p/iji. 

2  Genovesi,  Lez.  di  commercio,  1765  (new  ed.,  Milan,  1824),   part  I,  ch.  6, 
§§  i  and  9;  Filangieri,  Scienza  della  legislazione,  Naples,  1780-1785,  book  IV. 

3  Le  Roy  in  Schmid's  Enzyklopadie,  VI,  p.  123. 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  1 8TH  CENTURY.        307 

the  organization  of  the  State.1  These  pedagogical  views  of 
Rousseau  are  diametrically  opposed  to  the  educational  principles 
laid  down  in  Emi!e,  but  Rousseau's  rhetoric  did  not  fight  shy  of 
such  considerations.  Diderot  sketched  a  plan  for  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  schools  of  Russia,  and,  though  he  paid  little 
heed  to  the  peculiar  needs  of  that  country,  he  was  very  mod- 
erate in  his  views:  the  German  schools  and  universities  are 
to  be  imitated  in  Russia,  but  the  faculty  of  philosophy  is  to  be 
first  in  rank,  and  most  attention  should  be  given  to  the  natural 
and  the  technical  sciences.2  French  adventurers  have  not  de- 
served well  of  Russia  for  foisting  upon  the  country  the  edu- 
cational theories  of  the  Enlightenment.  For  a  short  time 
these  theories  attracted  the  eyes  of  all  Europe,  but  eventually 
proved  a  hollow  show.  A  real  beginning  was  made  only  after 
1780,  when  Russia  followed  the  example  of  the  Austrian  school 
reform,  imported  Felbinger's  teaching  devices  from  Vienna,  and 
opened  training  schools  for  teachers  in  several  large  cities.3 

<j.  In  Germany  several  factors  conspired  in  shaping  the  form 
of  the  school  system,  and  as  these  factors  operated  as  mutual 
aids  and  also,  at  times,  as  mutual  correctives,  the  Enlighten- 
ment produced  more  lasting  results  here  than  elsewhere.  These 
factors  were  Philanthropinism,  the  state  control  of  schools,  the 
rivalry  between  the  smaller  states,  and  the  traditions  of  the 
older  pedagogy. 

The  Philanthropinists  derived  their  first  principles  from 
Locke  and  Rousseau,  and  dreamed  of  new  foundations  which 
should  wield  a  far-reaching  influence.  Basedow  planned  a  large 
publishing  house  and  a  training  school  for  teachers  to  be  con- 
nected with  "an  immense  school  for  the  race  and  humanity." 
He  began  to  realize  his  ambitious  projects  with  the  publication 
of  his  Elementary  Book.  School  cabinets,  teaching  devices,  and 
an  elementary  institute  were  also  considered  as  means  to  assist 
in  improving  the  schools.  The  elementary  institute  was  no 
other  than  the  school  at  Dessau,  which,  however,  was  far  below 
the  expectations  raised  by  Basedow's  announcement  of  an  in- 
stitute in  which  "children  as  well  as  teachers  were  to  be  trained 


1  Considerations  sur  le  gouvernement  de  Pologne  et  sur  sa  reformation  frojetee, 
1772,  chap.  4.     This  state  pedagogy  of  Rousseau  is  complementary  in  more 
than  one  point  to  Emi/e,  and  a  critical  comparison  of  the  two  educational  the- 
ories would  be  illuminating. 

2  Plan  d'une  universite  pour  le  gouvernement  de  Russie  ou  d'une  education 
pubttque  dans  toutes  les  sciences,  1774. 

3  Helfert,  Die  osterreichische  Volksschuk,  Prague,  1860,  I,  p.  590. 


308  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

for  reforming  the  schools."  Basedow  hoped  to  enlist  the  aid 
of  the  State  for  his  plans,  and  repeatedly  petitioned  the 
government  to  establish  a  "bureau  of  morals  or  of  education" 
to  control  the  education  of  the  young  by  means  of  a  "moral 
State  examination."  He  was  at  the  same  time  eager  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  people,  especially  of  the  middle 
classes.  In  fact,  the  Philanthropinists  in  general  addressed  their 
educational  writings  to  the  people  at  large,  and  thus  their  ef- 
forts, instead  of  remaining  pure  theory,  assumed  a  certain 
solidity.  It  is  not  the  least  achievement  of  these  men — par- 
ticularly of  Campe  and  Salzmann — that  they  secured  the  inter- 
•est  of  the  middle  classes  for  educational  matters,  and  thereby 
bridged  in  Germany  the  gulf  that  still  separated  in  other  coun- 
tries the  active  leaders  from  the  apathetic  masses.  While  the 
German  educationists  may  appear,  in  comparison  with  the 
French,  poor  in  ideas  and  pedantic  in  manner,  still  they  are 
superior  to  the  latter  in  their  honest  effort  to  share  all  they 
acquired  with  a  class  of  the  people  to  whom  even  a  small  num- 
ber of  new  ideas  meant  a  great  gain.  This  social  gain  was  the 
real  and,  perhaps,  the  only  tangible  benefit  accruing  from  the 
work  of  the  Philanthropinists.  Even  their  contemporaries  re- 
cognized the  untenableness  of  their  didactic  principles.  Of  mod- 
ern writers,  Trendelenburg  has  summarized  the  objections 
against  these  principles  in  the  following  criticism:  "They  (the 
Philanthropinists)  ignored  the  fact  that  the  intellect  cannot  be 
developed  except  by  dealing  with  solid  matter,  and  that  the 
will  cannot  be  strengthened  by  purely  intellectual  training.  It 
is  unthinkable  that  there  could  be  real  education  without  mathe- 
matics and  the  classics.  It  was  ridiculous  to  expect  a  purely 
natural  religion,  a  collection  of  intellectual  abstractions,  to  im- 
press the  heart  of  a  child  and  even  to  supersede  the  deep  and 
soulful  truths  of  historical  Christianity."' 

6.  The  Philanthropinums  were  intended  to  prove  the  cen- 
tres of  a  new  kind  of  educational  institutions.  This,  however, 
they  failed  to  do,  for  they  were  short-lived,  and  only  one,/Salz- 
mann's  school  at  Schnepfenthal,  has  survived  beyond  the  i8th 
century  down  to  the  present  time.  Still,  they  gave  the  govern- 
ments an  opportunity  to  inaugurate  a  state  reform  of  the  school. 
Among  the  German  states,  Austria  and  Prussia  set  the  example 

1  Schlosser,  Geschichte  des  18.  Jahrhunderts,  II,  p.  631. 

2  Methodenbuch  fur  Vater  und  Mutter  der  Familien  und  Volker,  1770,  part  IX. 

3  Kleine  Schriften,  Leipzig,  1871,  I,  p.  147;  in  the  oration  on  Frederick  the 
Great  and  Zedlitz,  his  prime  minister. 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  l8TH  CENTURY.        309 

in  this  reform,  and  their  being  military  states  disproves  the  old 
saying  that  the  Muses  are  silent  in  the  midst  of  arms.  The  in- 
crease of  the  military  forces  necessitated  a  corresponding  in- 
crease of  the  taxes,  and  the  latter  called  for  improved  trades 
and  industries  for  which  practical  knowledge  and  technical  skill 
were  indispensable.  These  countries,  then,  began  to  reform  the 
national  schools  because  of  economic  and  political  needs.  But 
the  egoism  of  the  State  was  not  the  sole  reason  for  the  contem- 
plated reforms,  but  was  softened  by  the  humanitarian  tendency 
of  the  Enlightenment:  the  perfecting  of'  the  human  faculties 
was  expected  to  make  man  happy,  and  the  improved  schools 
were  regarded  as  sources  of  general  welfare.  The  terms  lan- 
desvaterlichen^  or  landesmutterlichen  Fiirsorge^  which  occur  so 
frequently  in  the  royal  decrees  of  the  period,  were  in  many  in- 
stances inspired  by  the  ruler's  kindly  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
his  people.  This  kindly  attitude  atones  considerably  for  some 
of  the  violent  measures  taken  by  the  different  governments. 
Still,  the  policy  of  allowing  scarcely  any  opportunity  for  private 
initiative  does  not  accord  with  the  general  tendency  of  the  age 
toward  independent  thought  and  action.  The  founders  of  the 
German'  state  school  system  undervalued  the  historical  elements 
of  education  and  overvalued  the  powers  of  the  State,  believing 
that  a  royal  decree  could  create  what  can  actually  develop  only 
from  the  slow  growth  of  many  years,  and  in  this  regard  they 
were  akin  of  soul  to  Pombal  and  Tanucci.  However,  a  certain 
reverence  for  existing  institutions  and  a  certain  practical  turn 
of  mind  preserved  the  German  reformers  from  the  revolutionary 
measures  of  the  Portuguese  and  Neapolitans. 

The  educational  reform  was  less  difficult  in  Prussia  because 
of  the  schools  established  there  in  the  beginning  of  the  century 
by  August  Herman  Francke.  He,  the  father  of  Pietistic  peda- 
gogy, had  largely  carried  out  what  had  in  the  case  of  Basedow 
never  gotten  beyond  the  stage  of  promise  and  project.  Francke's 
institutions  had  become  the  motherhouses  of  many  other  schools; 
they  supplied  the  German  Lutherans  with  public  school  teachers, 
private  tutors,  and  textbooks;  and  demonstrated  how  the  higher 
'  schools  could  correlate  technical  and  industrial 'training  with 
the  traditional  subjects.  Frederick  William  I.  recognized  the 
valuable  services  of  Francke's  schools;  witness  his  Principia 
regulativa  of  1736  and  his  statement,  "If  I  build  up  and  improve 
the  country,  but  do  not  make  Christians  of  my  subjects,  all  my 

1  A  sovereign's  fatherly,  or  motherly,  care. 


3IO  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

work  shall  be  in  vain."  Frederick  II.  also  entrusted  a  follower 
of  the  Halle  movement,  John  Julius  Hecker,  with  the  organi- 
zation of  the  national  school  system.  Hecker  is  the  author  of 
the  school  ordinances  of  1763,  whose  purpose  was  "to  banish 
from  the  country  the  ignorance  which  is  so  harmful  in  its  effects 
and  so  great  an  obstacle  to  the  spread  of  Christian  ideas;  and 
we  trust  that  by  improving  the  schools  our  subjects  will  be 
made  morally  better  and  industrially  more  efficient."  He  is 
likewise  the  founder  of  the  Berlin  Realschule,  which  was,  in 
principle  and  organization,  an  imitation  of  the  Halle  institu- 
tions. That  this  Reals chtile  was  not  content  with  the  flat  real- 
ism of  the  Philanthropinists,  may  be  seen  from  the  declaration 
of  J.  Fr.  Hahn,  Hecker's  collaborator:  "True  realism  must  be 
sought  in  the  things  that  promote  a  quiet  and  peaceful  con- 
science." The  educational  principles  of  the  Enlightenment 
were  championed  by  Zedlitz,  the  patron  of  Basedow  and  Trapp. 
Zedlitz,  however,  was  alive  to  some  of  the  dangers  of  their 
theories,  for  he  confessed,  "One  cannot  be  wary  enough  about 
the  metaphysical  education  of  the  peasants";  and  he  feared  lest 
the  schoolmasters,  unless  they  be  under  the  guidance  of  a  man 
like  Rochow,  "should  come  to  grief  and  develop  into  raisson- 
neurs. "  Zedlitz  prepared  the  ground  for  the  establishment  of  a 
central  bureau  of  education,  but  his  plan  was  carried  out  only 
in  1787.  The  "Oberschulkollegium,"  however,  continued  to  be 
true  to  what  he  had  stated  as  its  aim,  "to  exercise  a  general 
control  over  the  whole  school  system. "  When  the  new  King, 
Frederick  William  II.,  entrusted  the  formation  of  his  cabinet  to 
Wollner,  a  conservative  churchman,  a  radical  change  in  the 
school  system  seemed  to  be  impending;  but  the  schools  con- 
tinued the  same  policy  of  centralizing  all  education,  and  the 
Prussian  Statute-Book  of  1794  defines  schools  and  universities 
as  "institutions  of  the  State,  whose  aim  is  to  instruct  the  young 
in  useful  knowledge  and  the  sciences."  The  doctrine  of  the 
state  rights  in  education  came  to  be  universally  accepted  in  the 
schools,  as  appears  from  the  following  statement  of  Filers,  who 
voices  the  common  sentiments  of  the  teachers  of  his  time  and 
country:  "I  regarded  my  office  of  teacher  as  a  small  part  of  the 
King's  office,  for  I  considered  the  authority  of  the  King  of 
Prussia  to  be  a  power  for  the  moral  good  of  the  whole  country, 

1  Program  of  the  Berlin  Rsahchule  (1753),  quoted  by  Biedermann,  Altes 
und  Neues  von  Schuhachen>  1752-1755,  Vol.  VIII. 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  iSl'H  CENTURY.        311 

. 

and  I  conceived  the  education  and  training  of  the  young  to  be 
the  most  sacred  function  of  this  moral  power." 

In  Austria,  the  educational  reform  was  confronted  with  more 
difficulties  than  in  Prussia,  and  this  for  various  reasons:  the 
territory  of  Austria  was  three  times  as  large  as  that  of  Prussia; 
its  population  was  made  up  of  alien  races,  some  of  them  of  a 
low  stage  of  civilization;  lastly,  because  of  the  suppression  of 
the  Jesuits,  the  higher  schools  had  also  to  be  reorganized.  The 
success  of  the  reform  hung  in  the  balance  between  the  doc- 
trinairism  of  a  Pergen,  who  considered  as  most  important  the 
secularization  of  all  education,  and  the  conservatives,  whom 
Maria  Theresa  favored.  The  reforms  inaugurated  by  the  Em- 
press were  moderate,  practical,  and  not  hostile  to  the  traditions 
of  the  past.  She  once  remarked,  "The  school  system  is  and 
must  ever  remain  a  po/tticutn,"  and  this  principle  of  the  state 
school  governed  her  whole  educational  policy.  Some  of  her  re- 
form measures  for  instance,  the  "drilling"  of  the  teachers  and 
the  standardizing  of  instruction  according  to  the  normal  method 
— savour  of  the  military.  But  the  organizing  of  the  school 
system  was  entrusted  to  the  clergy,  and  Maria  Theresa  was 
fortunate  in  securing  the  services  of  capable  men,  interested  and 
versed  in  matters  educational.  The  memorial  of  Count  Firmian, 
Prince-Bishop  of  Passau,  which  was  entitled  Of  the  Usefulness 
Accruing  to  the  State  and  to  Religion  from  Good  Schoo!s(iy6c)}, 
occasioned  the  first  measures  of  reform;  the  General  School 
Ordinances  (1774)  of  Abbot  Felbiger  outlined  the  methods  of 
the  reform;  Dean  Kindermann  was  active  in  co-ordinating  in- 
dustrial training  with  the  elementary  school,  and  thus  enlarged 
the  scope  of  the  new  institutions.  After  the  Jesuits  were  sup- 
pressed, the  Piarists  took  over  their  colleges,  and  thereby  pre- 
served the  continuity  of  higher  learning.  In  this  way  the  new 
school  system  gained  sufficient  strength  to  survive  the  experi- 
mentations of  Joseph  II.  This  ruler  was  guided  by  the  best 
of  intentions  and  really  improved  the  elementary  schools,  yet 
on  the  whole  he  abandoned  the  wise  course  pursued  by  his 
mother. 

7.  All  the  German  princes  promoted  the  educational  reform 
in  their  respective  countries,  and  the  rivalry  between  the  dif- 
ferent governments  spurred  them  on  to  the  greatest  possible 
efforts.  Most  of  the  Protestant  states  followed  in  their  reform 
measures  the  example  of  the  Philanthropinists,  although  they 

1  Eilers'  Wanderungen,  II,  p.  177. 


312  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

did  not  accede  to  their  extreme  demands.  The  Catholic  countries 
followed  the  lead  of  the  Austrian  reform.  Among  the  organizers 
of  the  various  school  systems,  we  find  not  only  professional 
educators,  but  also  eminent  scholars — as  Gesner  in  Hannover 
and  Ernesti  in  the  electorate  of  Saxony;  writers  of  the  first 
rank — as  Herder,  who  founded  the  normal  school  in  Weimar; 
and  cultured  churchmen — as  Franz  von  Fiirstenberg,  the  father 
of  the  Miinster  school  system.  The  greatest  minds  of  the  age 
were  occupied  with  the  problems  of  education.  Not  only  news- 
papers and  magazines,  but  savants,  poets,  and  philosophers — all 
joined  in  the  educational  discussion;  all  were  eager  to  introduce 
the  new  educational  motives  and  materials  into  the  schools  and 
thereby  make  them  a  vital  force  for  the  future. 

The  elementary  school  reaped  the  first  fruits  of  these  efforts. 
The  elementary  school  system — if  understood  "as  the  elemen- 
tary instruction  which  the  State  regards  as  necessary,  and  which 
it  furnishes  in  public  institutions  of  the  State  (the  State  being 
here  conceived  in  the  broadest  sense),"  — is  a  creation  of  the 
1 8th  century;  and  may  be  said  to  have  originated  in  Germany, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  here  that  it  first  developed  along  natural 
and  uniform  lines.  The  elementary  school  system  is  based 
upon  the  state  control  of  schools,  and  implies  that  the  individual 
communities  must  build  and  support  the  school.  The  vocational 
training  of  teachers  and  the  fixing  of  their  duties  and  rights  are 
further  prerequisites  of  an  elementary  school  system.  These 
features  were  common  to  the  school  systems  of  the  different 
countries,  but  local  needs  called  for  many  variations.  Compul- 
sory school  attendance  (/'.  £.,  laws  compelling  the  parents  who 
cannot  provide  for  the  home  instruction  of  their  children  to 
send  them  to  school  until  certain  elements  of  knowledge  have 
been  acquired)  was  not  introduced  everywhere,  but  remained 
confined  to  Prussia  and  several  smaller  Protestant  states.  The 
Catholic  governments  only  encouraged  the  parents  to  send  their 
children  to  school,  but  did  not  compel  them  to  do  so.  The 
State  began  to  take  cognizance  also  of  private  schools,  and  made 
them  comply  with  certain  government  regulations.  In  Austria 
the  government  prescribed  the  teaching  methods  as  well  as  the 
textbooks,  but  not  all  governments  issued  such  formal  regula- 
tions. The  same  diversity  obtained  with  regard  to  the  subject- 


1  Stein,  ytrwaltungslehrc,  V,  p.  73;  for  more  definite  distinctions  see  infra, 
Ch.  XXX. 


THE  SCHOOL  REFORM  OF  THE  I  8TH  CENTURY.        313 

matter  of  teaching,  some  countries  allowing  more  scope  than 
others  to  industrial  training  and  the  natural  sciences. 

After  elementary  instruction  the  training  for  the  trades  and 
the  mechanical  arts  profited  most.  The  origins  of  almost  all 
training  schools  for  the  mechanical  arts  can  be  traced  back  to 
the  1 8th  century:  commercial  and  business  schools,  schools  of 
agriculture,  forestry,  engineering,  architecture,  technology,  etc., 
were  established  during  the  period  of  the  Enlightenment.1  .The 
Realschule^  as  founded  by  John  Julius  Hecker  in  Berlin  in  1747, 
was  a  Latin  school  with  elective  courses  in  commercial  and 
technical  sciences.  Hecker's  successors,  Silberschlag  and  Andrew 
Hecker,  organized  three  distinct  courses:  first,  a  pcedagogium 
for  higher  learning;  second,  a  school  of  art  with  courses  in  com- 
merce, architecture,  engineering,  the  fine  arts,  military  science, 
etc.;  third,  a  German,  or  industrial,  school.  It  was  only  in  the 
1 9th  century  that  the  Realschule  united  into  one  organic  whole 
the  rudiments  of  general  cultural  studies  and  the  elements  of 
industrial  training.  The  Realschule  developed  not  only  from 
those  schools  which  taught  from  the  beginning  only  modern 
subjects,  but  also  from  those  Latin  schools  that  gradually  added 
modern  subjects  in  order  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  lower  classes. 
To  this  latter  class  belong  the  Burgers  chulen*  (municipal  schools) 
of  northern  Germany,  the  Hauptschulen  (high  schools)  of  Aus- 
tria, the  girls'  schools  and  female  academies,  and  all  delatin- 
ized  town  schools,  which  now  began  to  occupy  the  middle 
field  between  the  elementary  school  and  the  gymnasia  and 
universities. 

The  state  reform  of  education  was,  on  the  whole,  not  favor- 
able to  the  institutions  of  higher  learning.  The  Enlightenment 
could  not  appreciate  the  autonomy  enjoyed  by  the  universities 
in  matters  educational.  The  Revolution  robbed  France,  the 
land  of  universities,  of  its  seats  of  higher  learning,  and  gave  in 
exchange  a  paltry  substitute — the  state  faculties  of  the  Napole- 
onic system.  The  Austrian  universities  were  deprived  of  their 

1  The  first  commercial  school  of  Hamburg  was  opened  in  1767;  the  com- 
mercial school  of  Vienna,  founded  in  1770,  was  later  changed  into  a  Realschule; 
the  Georgicon  of  Count  Festetics  in  Kessthely  is  the  oldest  school  of  agricul- 
ture; the  agricultural  school  of  Schwarzenberg  in  Krumau  and  Timer's  agri- 
cultural school  in  Oderbruch  were  opened  in  1799.     A  school  of  mining  was 
opened  in  Schemnitz  in  1760;  the  Berlin  school  of  engineering  was  opened  in 
1799;  the  oldest  of  the  technological  schools  is  the  Ecole  polytechnique  in 
Paris,  founded  by  Monwe  in  1794. 

2  Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  s.  v.  Realschule. 

3  Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  s.  v.  Burger schule. 


314  THE    ENLIGHTENMENT. 

autonomy  both  in  teaching  and  in  the  administration  of  their 
finances.  Joseph  II.  went  so  far  as  to  turn  some  of  the  Austrian 
universities  into  lyceums,  and  obliged  the  teachers  to  confine 
their  lectures  to  the  matter  contained  in  the  prescribed  text- 
books. In  these  radical  measures  he  followed  his  avowed  prin- 
ciple, "the  essential  studies  of  the  universities  are  intended  for 
the  training  of  state  officials,  and  not  for  the  training  only  of 
scholars. "  Frederick  II.  did  no  more  than  issue  the  order  that 
"the  heads  of  the  students  are  not  to  be  crammed  with  mean- 
ingless and  useless  subtleties,  but  are  to  be  enlightened  and 
prepared,  especially  by  the  study  of  philosophy,  to  acquire  and 
apply  truly  useful  knowledge. "  The  founding  of  new  state 
universities  affected  the  older  universities,  and  Gottingen  par- 
ticularly was  regarded  as  the  model  in  reorganizing  the  older 
institutions  in  the  interest  of  a  state  centralization  of  the  schools. 
Several  new  departments  were  added  to  the  universities:  the 
fiscal  sciences  were  introduced  into  the  faculty  of  law;  labora- 
tory methods  were  introduced  into  the  school  of  medicine; 
semi-popular  lectures  on  aesthetics,  pedagogy,  ethics,  encyclo- 
pedias, etc.,  became  a  feature  of  the  school  of  philosophy,  which 
was  further  augmented  by  the  introduction  of  the  historical 
sciences. 


IX. 
MODERN  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
The  Character  of  Modern  Education. 

i.  The  tendencies  of  I9th  century  education  and  its  organi- 
zation might  well  seem  to  be  inspired  by  the  ideals  of.  the  En- 
lightenment. However,  the  term  Enlightenment  is  no  longer  a 
catchword;  the  criticisms  of  the  Romanticists  and  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Historical  School  have  broken  its  charm,  and 
it  is  now  generally  associated  with  a  cold,  unsympathetic,  and 
soulless  movement.  Nevertheless,  the  shibboleths  of  to-day, 
"knowledge  is  power,"  "to  know  is  to  be  free,"  still  voice  the 
sentiments  and  the  tendencies  of  the  Enlightenment:  to  make 
the  individual  free,  to  make  him  his  own  master,  to  cast  off  the 
trammels  of  tradition  and  thereby  obtain  human  perfection  and 
happiness.  It  is  to-day  preached  from  the  house-tops  that  the 
progress  in  every  field  of  human  endeavor  together  with  the 
development  and  liberation  of  the  mind  should  be  the  goal  of 
man,  and  this  gospel  does  not  differ  essentially  from  that  of  the 
Enlightenment.  The  tendencies  are  the  same.  The  men  of  the 
2Oth  century  believe,  as  did  the  men  of  the  i8th,  that  an  age  of 
unparalleled  happiness  and  perfection  is  dawning  upon  the  hu- 
man race,  and  that  we  shall  attain  ultimate  perfection,  not  by 
following  the  past  in  appraising  things  and  actions  according  to 
their  bearing  on  eternity,  but  rather  by  believing  that  happiness 
will  come  to  us  through  the  application  of  our  individual  powers 
of  mind  and  body.  The  schools  of  to-day  are  still  pursuing  the 
aim  of  the  encyclopedists  of  the  Enlightenment:  to  adjust  the 
various  branches  of  the  course  of  study  to  the  practical  needs  of 
the  present;  and  the  modern  curriculum  is,  in  consequence, 
overcrowded.  The  realism,  too,  of  the  Enlightenment,  which 
applied  the  standards  of  immediate  usefulness  to  all  studies,  is 
still  abroad  and  very  active  in  the  world  of  to-day.  Our  age  is 
striving  to  carry  out  on  a  large  scale  the  design  which  was  first 
conceived  by  the  Enlightenment:  to  spread  useful  and  diversified 
knowledge  among  the  masses.  Our  age  has  thrown  open  the 

315 


3l6  MODERN  EDUCATION. 

schools,  elementary  and  secondary,  to  all  comers,  and  has  sup- 
plied the  millions  with  such  educational  instruments  as  were 
formerly  available  to  the  savant  only.  This  has  been  made 
possible  by  the  wonderful  inventions  and  discoveries  that  anni- 
hilate space  and  that  facilitate  the  reproduction  of  books  and 
works  of  art.  The  press  in  its  various  forms — periodicals,  maga- 
zines, newspapers — spreads  knowledge  and  useful  information. 
Much  as  the  State  had  accomplished  in  the  i8th  century  in 
organizing  the  schools,  it  dwindles  into  insignificance  when 'com- 
pared with  the  educational  activities  of  the  modern  State.  The 
theories  of  the  economists  of  the  Enlightenment  have  likewise 
expanded  into  the  broader  conception  of  the  economists  of  the 
early  I9th  century,  who  fostered  the  theory  of  the  omnipotent 
State.  The  pedagogy  of  the  Enlightenment  is  still  exerting 
much  influence  upon  the  pedagogy  and  didactics  of  to-day. 
Pestalozzi's  system  is  patterned  all  too  closely  after  the  intel- 
lectualism  and  the  worship  of  method  so  characteristis  uf  the 
Enlightenment.  Dinter  and  Diesterweg  championed  a  modified 
Philanthropinism  and  converted  many  schoolmen  to  it.  The 
individualistic  conception  of  Locke  and  Rousseau  enters  even 
into  philosophical  pedagogy.  English  educational  thought  is  fol- 
lowing a  sensualistic  cr  materialistic  utilitarianism,  and  looks 
kindly  on  Trapp's  suggestion  to  make  pedagogy  a  department 
of  medicine. 

2.  Notwithstanding  these  points  of  contact,  there  are  many 
points  of  divergence  between  the  educational  system  of  the  i8th 
century  and  that  of  the  ipth.  In  the  very  first  years  of  the 
1 9th  century  the  views  and  tendencies  of  men  changed  to  what 
was  diametrically  opposed  to  the  ideals  of  the  Enlightenment. 
This  change  was  connected  with  the  agitation  of  mind  produced 
by  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  subsequent 
phenomenal  growth  of  Napoleon's  power.  The  French  Revolu- 
tion had  destroyed  the  historical  foundations  of  society,  and 
Napoleon's  successes  had  unbalanced  the  political  status  of 
Europe  and  was  threatening  to  crush  the  national  spirit  of  the 
subjugated  peoples.  The  fear  was  general  lest  the  destruction 
of  all  existing  institutions  and  of  all  that  had  till  then  been  held 
most  sacred  was  impending,  and  in  their  despair  men  seized 
upon  everything  that  promised  help  in  the  mad  struggle  for 
existence.  The  best  men  of  the  time  demanded  less  enlighten- 
ment of  the  intellect  and  more  strengthening  of  the  will.  They 
were  not  bent  on  throwing  off  the  "shackles"  of  tradition. 
Instead,  they  were  anxious  to  hold  fast  to  all  of  the  past  that 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.         317 

gave  any  hope  of  proving  an  anchor  in  the  tempest;  they  turned 
to  the  great  deeds  of  their  forbears  to  fill  their  souls  with  the 
spirit  of  high  courage.  They  recognized  that  the  vaunted  indi- 
vidualizing of  the  Enlightenment  tended  ultimately  to  tear 
away  the  individual  from  the  mainstays  of  his  strength,  viz.,  the 
inspiration  of  the  past  and  the  cheering  and  invigorating  influ- 
ence of  his  fellowmen.  The  individualizing  tendency  appeared 
in  its  true  light  as  the  selfishness,  the  social  egoism  and  moral 
atomism  that  had  destroyed  all  order  and  which  were  responsible 
for  the  moral  horrors  lately  perpetrated  in  Europe.  The  Cos- 
mopolitanism of  the  Enlightenment  was  likewise  condemned  as 
being  fraught  with  the  same  dangers,  for,  on  the  one  hand,  it 
would  eliminate  all  national  differences  and  substitute  an  ab- 
straction in  their  stead,  and,  on  the' other  hand,  it  would  substi- 
tute for  the  historical  religions  a  colorless  and  undenominational 
religion  of  natural  humanity.  The  early  I9th  century  realized 
that  the  national  spirit  is  a  priceless  inheritance  and  that  the 
Church  is  the  foundation  stone  for  the  reconstruction  of  society. 
Thus  the  Enlightenment  appeared  as  robbing  the  race  of  its 
most  valued  treasures,  as  undermining  the  foundations  of  order, 
and  as  destroying  the  true  boons  of  life.  Hence  the  leaders  of 
the  new  age  went  beyond  the  Enlightenment  and  finally  arrived 
at  that  period  which  had  been  most  maligned  by  the  Enlighten- 
ment, the  Middle  Ages,  in  which  era  Christian  idealism  and  the 
Germanic  spirit  had  achieved  their  greatest  triumphs. 

The  new  age  was  a  renaissance  of  historical,  national,  and 
Christian  elements,  occurring  at  a  time  when  the  inner  life  was 
intensified  by  the  pressure  from  without.  Like  all  violent  move- 
ments making  for  a  change  in  ideals,  this  renaissance  had  its 
dark  sides.  Many  of  its  principles  and  ideas  were  obscure  and 
not  clearly  defined;  much  was  done  without  due  deliberation; 
there  was  also  some  unfairness  to  certain  parties;  and  the  evil 
effects  may  be  seen  in  the  aberrations  of  the  Romanticists,  in 
the  Teutomania,  and  in  the  politics  of  the  Restoration.  Still, 
the  results  were,  on  the  whole,  favorable,  and  education  gained 
in  depth,  clearness,  and  consolidation.  The  renaissance  of  the 
igth  century  did  away  with  the  vague  Cosmopolitanism  of  the 
Enlightenment,  counterbalanced  the  one-sided  systems  of  poli- 
tics, and  prepared  the  way  for  the  historical  conception  of 
education. 

It  would  be  incorrect  to  describe  the  i8th  century  as  simply 
cosmopolitan  and  the  ipth  century  as  the  century  of  national 
tendencies,  because  the  former  nationalized  many  elements  of 


3l8     .  MODERN    EDUCATION. 

education  by  popularizing  them,  and  the  I9th  century  promoted 
the  intercommunication  between  different  nations  and  opened 
up  world-perspectives.  But  the  ideal  of  the  i8th  .century  was 
cosmopolitan.  That  century  considered  it  a  duty  to  foster  Euro- 
pean patriotism,  to  raise  men  to  a  height  where  they  would  lose 
sight  of  the  fragments  of  humanity  (as  the  national  distinctions 
were  then  regarded),  and  where  they  would  be  conscious  of  only 
the  one  common  race  of  man.  The  I9th  century,  however, 
encouraged  certain  national  instincts,  which  restrict  the  assimi- 
lation of  different  peoples,  and  which  prompt  the  intensive 
cultivation  of  national  characteristics.  It  must  be  conceded 
that  these  national  tendencies  produced  some  undesirable  re- 
sults. The  consciousness  of  a  general  humanity,  a  commendable 
feature  of  the  Enlightenment,  has  not  been  cultivated  suffi- 
ciently; the  countries  whose  population  is  made  up  of  alien 
races  note  with  alarm  the  growing  national  consciousness  among 
their  unassimilated  inhabitants;  a  kind  of  hero  worship  has  been 
encouraged,  in  which  success  is  the  sole  criterion,  and  which 
pardons  even  the  most  serious  moral  crimes  in  view  of  the  lib- 
erties allowed  to  genius.  Yet  the  reintroduction  of  national 
elements  into  life  and  education  has  meant  real  progress.  It  is 
well  that  Rousseau's  suggestion  to  expunge  the  words  citizen 
and  fatherland  from  the  lexicon  has  never  been  acted  upon,  and 
that  they  still  hold  a  prominent  place  in  our  dictionaries.  It  is 
an  obvious  gain  that  the  view  holding  all  peculiarities  to  be  an 
evil  and  all  ties  an  obstacle  to  man's  liberty,  is  gradually  giving 
way,  though  as  yet  only  in  the  domain  of  nationality,  to  the 
appreciation  of  the  importance  of  social  and  ethical  relations. 
To  have  a  solid  foundation,  humanity  must  assimilate  those 
elements  of  general  humanity  that  are  embodied  in  the  various 
nationalities,  and  to  which  the  individual  is  indebted  for  the 
very  first  gifts  received  from  the  race.  The  plastic  forces  of  nation- 
ality are  not  to  co-operate  merely  unconsciously  and  secretly 
with  the  intellectual  development,  but  should  introduce  it,  ac- 
company it,  and  complete  it.  Higher  learning,  freighted  as  it  is 
with  goods  from  many  lands,  may  never  grow  oblivious  of  the 
home-port  whence  it  first  sailed  and  whither  it  is  to  return. 
National  education  is  not  to  aim  solely  at  educating  "intelligent 
and  useful  men,"  but  also  at  impressing  the  members  of  all 
classes  with  the  consciousness  of  their  solidarity  as  parts  of  one 
national  organism;  and  it  is  only  the  consciousness  of  this  soli- 
darity which  will  ensure  to  each  individual  member  his  proper 
share  of  the  treasures  handed  down  from  the  past  and  which 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.         319 

are  now  the  common  property  of  the  whole  nation.  This  herit- 
age is  of  the  soul,  the  heart,  and  the  memory,  and  is,  therefore, 
a  heritage  of  ideals,  a  priceless  asset  to  any  and  every  nation. 
These  ideals  are  most  real  in  their  influence  upon  the  new  gen- 
eration; and  particularly  in  our  own  day,  when  the  corroding 
influences  of  materialism  are  at  work,  is  a  national  idealism  a 
most  important  factor  for  the  well-being  of  a  nation. 

3.  As  the  1 9th  century  rejected  the  false  Cosmopolitanism 
of  the  1 8th  century,  so  the  present-day  world  is  gradually  aban- 
doning the  position  taken  by  the  Enlightenment  in  political 
science  when  it  conceded  to  the  State  an  almost  unlimited 
power,  so  that  the  latter  was  regarded  as  the  only  agency  for 
directing  the  collective  activities  of  the  race  and  as  the  macro- 
cosm of  man.  This  doctrine  dates  from  the  political  theories  of 
the  ancients,  was  accepted  by  the  medieval  students  of  Roman 
law  and  by  the  economists  of  the  Renaissance,  and  found  prac- 
tical expression  in  the  police-governed  State.  It  still  influences 
the  conception  of  the  modern  State,  yet  it  has  been  losing  ground 
ever  since  the  historical  and  organic  method  of  study  has  been 
applied  to  its  basic  principles.  No  statesman  of  deeper  views 
to-day  regards  a  nation  from  the  viewpoint  solely  of  its  numer- 
ical strength,  nor  considers  its  trades  and  industries  merely  as 
filling  the  State's  coffers,  nor  looks  upon  the  Church  as  a  govern- 
ment institution  that  furnishes  the  opportunities  for  public 
worship.  Though  the  development  of  the  public  school  system 
may  still  be  following  the  lines  drawn  by  political  economy 
when  it  was  conceived  as  the  science  of  the  police  system,  yet 
we  have  gotten  beyond  the  State  pedagogy,  which  was  the 
foundation  of  the  false  views.  It  is  true  that  the  State  must 
control  the  educational  apparatus,  and  that  the  educative  pro- 
cess requires  certain  legal  forms  authorized  by  the  State;  but 
apparatus  and  form  are  not  the  thing  itself.  The  main  educa- 
tional forces  exist  independently  of,  and  prior  to,  any  State 
interference,  and  the  State  must  base  all  its  regulations  on  the 
forces  at  work  among  the  people.  The  State  cannot  produce  a 
national  civilization  and  culture;  it  is  at  best  only  the  adminis- 
trator of  the  educational  and  cultural  materials  belonging  to 
the  people.  But  little  of  this  material  is  at  all  accessible  to  the 
State,  for  most  of  it  is  bound  up  with  institutions  and  manners 
and  customs  that  are  beyond  the  control  of  the  State.  There 
is  evident  need  of  a  science  treating  of  the  transmission  of  the 
educational  and  cultural  treasures,  /.  <?.,  a  science  of  intellectual 
economy;  and  though  the  full  development  of  this  science  is 


32O  MODERN    EDUCATION. 

still  a  thing  of  the  future,  yet  it  is  a  distinct  achievement  of  the 
present  day  to  have  recognized  the  need  of  it. 

This  change  to  the  historical  point  of  view  has  been  a  great 
gain  to  the  sciences  and  has  thus  benefited  the  content  of  edu- 
cation also.  The  moral  sciences  as  well  as  the  natural  sciences 
now  recognize  the  value  of  historical  research.  Instruction  in- 
directly and  the  concept  of  education  directly  have  been  bene- 
fited by  this  appreciation;  and  that  education  must  be  based 
upon  a  historical  foundation,  is  a  truism  among  thinking  edu- 
cators of  the  present  day.  Antiquities  are  studied  in  our  schools 
less  for  the  sake  of  their  training  the  aesthetic  or  formal  sense, 
than  for  the  reason  that  they  let  us  understand  and  appreciate 
our  culture  by  showing  the  roots  from  which  it  has  sprung. 
The  same  consideration,  namely,  the  discovery  of  the  source  of 
our  present  possessions,  has  led  to  the  study  of  the  early  forms 
of  the  mother-tongue.  The  teacher  of  religion  is  also  at  pains 
to  bring  home  to  his  pupils,  how  important  an  element  Chris- 
tianity is  in  the  historical  development  of  modern  civilization 
and  culture.  The  present-day  teacher  of  history,  too,  must  do 
more  than  summarize  wars  and  battles  and  the  deeds  of  kings: 
he  must  both  present  and  interpret  pictures  of  the  different 
periods;  must  lead  his  pupils  to  understand  their  color  and 
spirit;  and  thus  train  them  to  observe  the  historical  background 
of  the  infinite  variety  of  modern  life.  The  idea  of  a  genetic 
method  which  permits  an  object  of  study  to  be  developed  before, 
and  in,  the  mind  of  the  pupil  in  accordance  with  the  historical 
development  of  that  object,  is  a  result  of  the  historical  method 
introduced  into  the  curricula,  and  constitutes  the  truly  modern 
problem  of  methodology.1  We  cannot  approve  of  all  the  ap- 
plications made  of  the  historical  principle  and  the  historical 
method;  its  importance  has  been  exaggerated  and  it  has  also 
been  wrongly  applied.  There  is  a  historicism  no  less  than  a 
naturalism,  and  both  join  hands  in  the  modern  science  of  'evo- 
lution, which  places  the  beast-man  on  the  threshold  of  history. 
It  is  a  wrong  application  of  the  historical  principle  to  be  so 
taken  up  with  the  successive  changes  as  to  overlook  the  forces 
that  remain  permanently  at  work;  or  in  the  process  of  evolution 
to  miss  that  which  is  evolved;  or  amid  the  material  successes  to 
lose  sight  of  the  end  and  aim  of  man.  The  application  of  the 
historical  principle  to  the  educative  process  will  be  wrong,  if  we 
do  not  understand  aright  the  nature  of  the  mind  and  the  end  of 

1  Cf.  supra,  pp.  54  ff.  and  Vol.  II.,  Ch.  XLII. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.         321 

man,  for  education  must  be  shaped  in  accordance  with  these; 
also,  if  we  are  satisfied  with  looking  at  the  mere  facts  and  neg- 
lect to  correlate  them  with  the  vital  and  moral  consciousness  of 
the  subject;  thirdly,  if  we — to  use  the  illustration  of  Schleier- 
macher — forget  that  history  is  the  picture-book  of  ethics,  and 
ethics,  the  rule-book  of  history.  Thus  classical  and  national 
antiquity,  and  especially  Christianity,  would  be  treated  unfairly 
if  considered  solely  as  keys  to  the  historical  understanding  of 
the  present.  Nor  shall  we  reap  the  full  fruits  from  the  study 
of  history  if  we  treat  it  merely  as  the  record  of  the  progress  of 
civilization;  nor  is  the  historical  study  of  any  science  sufficient 
'even  for  only  cultural  purposes.  But  the  mistakes  made  in  the 
application  of  the  historical  principle  cannot  detract  from  its 
obvious  benefits  to  education,  especially  with  regard  to  con- 
solidating the  educative  process.  The  historical  principle  has 
prompted  the  jealous  safeguarding  of  all  educational  elements, 
whether  transmitted  from  the  past  or  produced  in  the  present. 
It  preserves  the  world  from  the  barbarism  of  the  Enlightenment, 
which  was  ready  to  destroy  all  that  did  not  appeal  to  the  cor- 
rupt taste  of  the  time.  Our  education  owes  much  to' the  intel- 
lectual movements  of  the  present,  but  it  is  likewise  a  fruit  of 
the  past;  and  the  roots  imbedded  in  the  past  are  still  supplying 
nourishment  to  what  has  grown  for  ages  and  has  laid  on  with 
the  different  periods  successive  concentric  -layers.  Let  education- 
ists uphold  this  truth,  and  they  will  be  able  to  oppose  effectively 
any  attack  of  utilitarianism  or  Americanism  and  thereby  post- 
pone the  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  that  natural  history,  hygi- 
ene, technology,  etc.,  will  occupy  the  first  place  in  our  curricula. 
4.  The  elements  and  impulses  dating  from  the  renaissance  of 
the  early  I9th  century  have  preserved  modern  education  from 
being  deprived  of  some  of  its  richest  elements,  as  the  principle 
of  the  Enlightenment  had  threatened  to  do.  Still,  it  would  be 
too  optimistic  to  assume  that  modern  education  is  consequently 
both  rich  and  deep.  Modern  education  lacks  the  strength  to  co- 
ordinate the  wealth  of  its  content  and  its  multitudinous  view- 
points with  a  governing  and  organizing  principle.  This  is  the 
chief  defect  of  modern  education,  and  we  cannot  find  in  it,  as 
in  the  education  of  other  periods,  one  prevailing  view  and  ten- 
dency. The  historical  principle  is  a  powerful  factor  at  present, 
as  is  the  national  principle  also.  But  these  principles  are  mere 
factors.  They  are  not  core  principles.  Our  age  scorns  none  of 
the  educational  ideals  of  earlier  periods  and  would  take  them 
21 


322  MODERN    EDUCATION. 

/ 

over  in  their  totality:  it  is  alive  to  the  beauty  of  Greek  culture, 
to  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Renaissance,  to  the  varied  erudition 
of  the  early  polymathists,  and  would  fain  admire,  too,  the 
Christian  ideals  that  reared  the  great  cathedrals  of  Europe  and 
that  lent  wings  to  the  genius  of  Dante.  We  are  not  content  with 
transplanting  into  our  gardens  all  that  is  great  and  beautiful 
and  choice  in  every  age  of  the  world's  history;  nay,  we  would 
derive  the  greatest  possible  benefit  from  each  of  these  exotic 
plants  and  would  let  all  the  masses  enjoy  their  fruits.  We  would 
reduce  all  that  is  choice  and  rare  to  a  handy  literary  form, 
would  compress  it  all  into  the  textbooks  used  in  the  schools, 
and  thus  make  it  the  subject-matter  of  the  curricula.  The  ec- 
lectisism  of  other  ages  was  light  and  frivolous,  but  the  eclecti- 
cism of  the  present  time  is  thorough  and  pedantic.  Polymathy 
was  formerly  the  favorite  browsing-field  of  the  amateur,  but  it 
is  made  a  matter  of  duty  in  the  schools  of  to-day. 

The  division  of  labor,  as  practiced  in  modern  scientific  re- 
search, is  diametrically  opposed  to  the  polymathy  of  the  schools. 
It  was  possible  in  former  times,  because  the  curricula  were  not 
so  comprehensive  as  to-day,  to  continue  in  later  life  all  the  edu- 
cational work  of  the  schools.  But  present-day  schools  build, 
indeed,  a  broad  and  comprehensive  foundation,  but  the  super- 
structure, raised  on  this  broad  foundation,  soon  tapers  to  a 
slender  point.  In  our  scientific  research  we  adopt  the  principle 
of  the  factory,  that  one  workman  can  make  perfectly  only  one 
thing.  But  in  teaching  we  follow  the  principle  of  polytechnics, 
the  very  opposite  of  specialized  factory  work.  General  educa- 
tion and  vocational  training  are  now  regarded  as  diametrically 
opposed  to  each  other.  The  former  is  built  upon  the  broadest 
lines,  and  the  latter  restricts  the  student  to  one  special  point. 
There  is  a  second  disproportion  between  general  education  and 
vocational  training.  Although  genuine  education,  whether  gen- 
eral or  vocational,  should  stress  the  elements  of  knowledge  no 
less  than  that  of  practical  skill,  yet  our  general  education  stresses 
knowledge,  but  neglects  almost  entirely  practical  skill;  and  our 
vocational  training,  on  the  other  hand,  stresses  practical  skill 
at  the  expense  of  knowledge.  The  schools  impart  knowledge 
well  enough,  but  neglect  the  practical  training,  and  this  while 
the  world  is  clamoring  for  practical  skill  and  voting  as  worse 
than  useless  most  of  the  theoretical  knowledge  acquired  in  the 
schools.  Our  educational  system  is  the  very  antipode  of  the 
system  of  the  seven  liberal  arts.  Our  skill  is  professional,  and 
our  liberal  education  is  knowledge.  In  matters  intellectual  we 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.         323 

speak  of  instruction  .only,  and  not  of  schooling,  which  is  com- 
mitted to  the  illiberal  field.  The  work  of  instruction  is  per- 
formed by  teachers,  who  have  dropped  the  honorable  name  of 
schoolmaster  for  that  of  school-teacher  (which  implies  less); 
and  that  not  without  reason,  for  they  have  abandoned  the  work 
of  the  schoolmaster  who  fitted  his  pupils  for  active  life. 

To  discover  the  ultimate  causes  of  these  two  defects  of  our 
system  of  education  (the  ill-advised  eclecticism  and  the  opposi- 
tion between  life  and  school),  would  lead  us  too  far  afield,  since  it 
would  necessitate  an  analysis  of  the  whole  modern  spirit.  But 
without  leaving  the  domain  of  education,  we  may  note  two 
causes  of  these  defects.  Goethe  remarks  that  a  harmonious  de- 
velopment is  impossible  if  "because  of  the  progress  in  culture 
not  all  the  parts  of  human  activity,  in  which  education  shows 
itself,  can  develop  in  the  same  degree,  and  thus  more  scope  is 
granted  to  some  few,  thereby  occasioning  jealousy  among  the 
members  of  the  great  family  that  has  so  many  various  branches."1 
This  is  true  of  modern  education,  for  here  the  preponderance  of 
certain  forces  never  permitted  the  development  of  harmonious 
family  relations.  The  attention  given  in  the  Middle  Ages  to 
dialectic  involved  some  loss  of  symmetry.  Still  more  was  lost 
when  philology  usurped,  in  the  early  Renaissance,  the  first  place 
in  the  curriculum.  But  this  science  was,  in  turn,  antagonized 
by  the  dialectic  of  the  Enlightenment.  The  dialectic  of  the  i8th 
century  reduced  the  State,  society,  and  education  to  individual 
and  isolated  atoms,  and  substituted  for  the  ideals  of  the  earlier 
periods  the  rational  sciences,  which  naturally  won  favor  with 
isolated  individuals.  The  renaissance  of  the  I9th  century  re- 
instated some  of  the  elements  of  the  earlier  periods  and  made 
a  strong  defence  against  the  inroads  of  utilitarianism,  though  it 
never  vanquished  this  insidious  foe.  Modern  education  may  be 
said  to  have  fallen  heir  to  the  battlefield  where  all  educational 
principles  join  in  the  fray,  and  it  is  making  an  honest  effort  to 
establish  peace,  to  be  fair  to  all,  and  to  exchange  the  narrowness 
of  older  periods  for  the  broad  and  varied  culture  of  the  present. 
Modern  education  is  a  compromise  between  Humanism,  Real- 
ism, and  Romanticism;  it  combines  the  Renaissance  style,  the 
Rococo  style,  and  the  Gothic  style,  and  injects  this  variety  into 
the  inner  life  no  less  than  into  the  style  of  our  public  buildings 
and  churches. 


1  Werke  in  der  Ausgabe  letzter  Hand,  Vol.  XXXVII,  p.  50  (Winkelmann). 


324  MODERN  EDUCATION. 

But  the  mere  joining  of  these  cultural  elements  does  not  produce 
the  desired  family  relationship.  Cohabitation  does  not  imply  har- 
mony, and  mere  juxtaposition  is  no  fusion.  This  suggests  also  the 
second  cause  of  the  defects  of  modern  education.  We  assume  that 
mere  addition,  a  mere  joining  of  educational  elements,  produces 
real  education.  We  are  concerned  only  for  what  can  be  called,  the 
body  of  education,  and  are  persuaded  that,  once  the  body  is 
present,  the  vivification  of  the  inert  mass  will  take  place  of  it- 
self. This  mechanistic  conception  is  the  basis  of  the  eclecticism 
of  general  education  as  well  as  of  the  specializing  tendency  of 
modern  science.  General  education  would  create  something  liv- 

O 

ing  by  combining  atoms,  and  the  specialist  would  discover  the 
vital  elements  by  breaking  a  living  whole  into  atoms.  Wise  men 
have,  indeed,  called  attention  to  the  organic  nature  of  education 
and  have  recognized  it  as  a  postulate  for  the  educative  process; 
but  it  remains  a  postulate  and  is  no  guiding  principle.  Though 
we  have  in  theory  proved  the  untenableness  of  the  mechanistic 
position,  and  though  we  strive  to  abandon  it  also  in  practice, 
still  we  cannot  break  away  from  it;  it  is  in  the  air,  we  breathe 
it,  and  are  influenced  by  it. 

Modern  education  thus  presents  contradictions  on  all  sides, 
but  it  would  be  unfair  to  conclude  that  it  is  therefore  only  a 
battleground  of  conflicting  elements.  The  past  ages  may  well 
have  presented  similar  scenes,  though  we,  intent  as  we  are  on 
discovering  the  permanent  forms  of  education,  fail  to  note  the 
discord;  or  even  if  we  should  discover  in  the  past  some  opposi- 
tion between  the  educational  elements,  we  should  still  not  real- 
ize it  so  much  as  the  conflicts  of  the  present,  which,  being  so 
close  to  us,  force  themselves  alike  upon  the  mind  and  the  feel- 
ings. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 
The  Content  of  Modern  Education. 

i.  The  forte  of  modern  education  is  the  diversity  of  its 
content.  Not  only  have  the  school  subjects  grown  in  number, 
but  the  contributions  of  the  individual  sciences  to  education 
have  been  augmented,  and  new  elements  of  educational  value 
have  been  unearthed.  Sometime  professional  sciences  have  be- 
come school  subjects,  and  sometime  school  subjects  have  de- 
veloped into  professional  sciences,  without,  however,  abandon- 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.          325 

ing  their  educational  function.  The  last  is  true  primarily  of 
the  science  that  we  have  inherited  from  the  Renaissance  and' 
which  fortunately  survived  the  onslaughts  of  the  Enlighten- 
ment— philology.  The  older  philology  was  essentially  a  school 
subject,  and  its  position  in  the  universitas  litterarum^  was  purely 
propaedeutic.  It  was,  indeed,  the  basic  discipline,  the  vital  ele- 
ment of  higher  education,  but  was  prevented  by  this  very  fact 
from  developing  into  a  professional  science.  With  its  general 
and  elastic  character  it  never  became  clear  whether  its  object 
was  merely  language  and  the  art  of  language,  or  whether  it  was 
to  embrace  all  erudition  and  eventually  be  co-extensive  with 
polyhistory.  It  was  likewise  not  clear  whether  philology  should 
be  restricted  to  the  language  and  literature  of  classical  antiquity, 
or  whether  it  was  to  embrace  the  higher  study  of  all  languages 
and  literatures.  Only  in  our  time  was  its  scope  definitely  fixed 
by  marking  off  the  borderland  between  philology  and  the  related 
sciences.  The  proper  function  of  philology  is,  according  to  the 
modern  conception,  the  ideal  reconstruction  of  the  total  activity 
of  a  people.  Friedrich  August  Wolf,  the  first  modern  to  call 
himself  a  philologist,  defines  the  subject  compactly,  but  broadly, 
as  the  biography  of  a  people.  The  purpose  of  it  is  to  recon- 
struct all  the  life  of  a  past  period  that  can  be  recovered  from 
records.  August  Boeckh  defined  it  (Enzyklop&die,  p.  16)  as  "the 
putting  together  again  in  its  entirety  of  all  that  the  human 
spirit  has  fashioned."  Modern  philology  is  one  of  the  his- 
torical sciences,  taking  these  in  their  broadest  conception.  But 
while  the  history  of  an  individual  field  of  human  activity  "fol- 
lows only  one  line  of  development,  philology  collects  all  these 
lines  into  one  group  and  lays  them  before  the  student  as  so 
many  radii  issuing  from  the  common  centre,  the  spirit  of  the 
respective  people."  Both  philology  and  history  deal  with  his- 
torical facts,  but  they  join  them  into  different  units.  Political 
history  deals  with  political  events  and  changes.  The  history  of 
art  is  concerned  with  the  works  of  art  of  the  different  periods 
and  peoples.  The  history  of  philosophy  records  the  speculative 
work  of  the  human  mind,  irrespective  of  territorial  distinctions. 
Philology  has  also  to  deal  with  the.  State,  with  art,  with  phi- 
losophy, etc.,  but  only  inasmuch  as  these  represent  important 

1  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  s.  v.  Philology. 

2  Reichardt,  Die  Gliederung  der  Philologie,  Tubingen,  1846,  p.  69;  Boeckh, 
Enzyklopddie   und  Methodologie  der  philologischen  Wissenschajten,  edited   by 
Bratuschek,  Leipzig,  1877,  pp.  19  ff;  Steinthal,  Philologiet  Geschichte  und  Psy- 
chologic, Berlin,  1864. 


326  MODERN    EDUCATION. 

phases  of  a  certain  national  life.  Classical  philology  deals  with 
the  totality  of  the  life  of  Greece  and  Rome;  Sanskrit  philology, 
with  the  life  of  India  in  all  its  phases;  and  Germanic  philology, 
with  the  historical  life  of  the  Germanic  peoples.  Because  the 
spirit  of  a  people  manifests  itself  most  in  its  language  and  liter- 
ature, greater  attention  must  be  given  to  these.  Philology  fol- 
lows the  example  of  history  in  regarding  the  language  of  a  people 
as  a  key,  and  its  written  records  as  sources;  but  considers  them, 
moreover,  as  objects  of  research,  because  the  interpretation  of 
them  is  of  basic  importance  for  all  its  findings.  To  conjure  up 
the  spirit  of  the  past  life  of  a  people,  philology  must  address 
this  spirit  thus,  "Speak,  so  that  I  may  see  thee. " 

F.  A.  Wolf  was  the  first  to  advance  this  conception  of  phi- 
lology, and  Bceckh  clarified  it  and  developed  it  methodologically. 
In  this  sense  philology  is  a  field  for  special  scientific  research, 
and  offers,  at  the  same  time,  new  possibilities  as  a  school  sub- 
ject. It  is  neither  narrowed  down  to  mere  linguistics,  nor  so 
broadened  as  to  be  co-extensive  with  polymathy.  The  modern 
conception  of  the  science  of  language  encourages  the  philology 
of  the  schools  to  introduce  scientific  method  into  language  in- 
struction and  the  reading  of  authors,  nay,  even  to  reproduce,  to 
some  extent,  the  past  life  of  the  respective  people.  The  classical 
teacher  of  the  present  time  selects  the  school  authors  with  more 
regard  to  their  content  than  was  ever  done  before.  Anthologies, 
containing  only  language  materials,  have  been  almost  entirely 
discarded  in  the  higher  and  middle  classes,  and  many  educators 
object  with  good  reason  to  the  short  and  disconnected  sentences 
of  elementary  exercise  books.  We  now  have  school  editions  of 
classical  authors  whose  text,  notes,  illustrations,  maps,  etc.,  are 
well  adapted  to  reconstruct  the  particular  phase  of  the  ancient 
world  represented  by  the  writer.  We  recognize  and  follow  the 
rule  laid  down  by  the  old  didacticians:  the  student  must  be 
interested  in  the  content  as  well  as  in  the  style.  The  new 
methodology  of  classical  instruction  demands,  in  accordance 
with  modern  hermeneutics,  that  we  evolve  the  thought  content 
from  the  linguistic  form.  And  to  this  end  we  must  attend  to  the 
niceties  of  expression,  without,  however,  attaching  too  much 
weight  to  individual  phrases,  as  this  would  not  permit  us  to 
grasp  the  meaning  of  the  whole.  Even  if  this  high  ideal  is  not 
realized  in  actual  instruction,  it  is  still  a  great  gain  to  have 
given  expression  to  the  problem  that  was  unknown  to  the  older 
methodology,  which  rested  content  either  with  the,  appreciation 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.          327 

of  the  literary  form,  or  with   the  mere  understanding  of  the 
content. 

2.  Classical  schools  had  formerly  given  much  more  attention 
to  Latin  than  to  Greek,  but  the  early  I9th  century  adjusted  the 
study  of  the  two  ancient  languages  more  properly.  Even  in 
the  halcyon  days  of  the  Renaissance,  Greek  was  not  studied  so 
extensively,  for  so  long  a  period  of  the  school  course,  and  in  so 
well-graded  a  course  as  to-day.  Latin  is  to-day  of  less  practical 
value  than  formerly,  when  it  was  the  language  of  all  the  sciences, 
and  the  modern  world  has  also  recognized  that  the  originality 
and  harmony  of  Greek  culture  are  lacking  in  the  culture  of 
Rome.  Hence  modern  educators  have,  at  different  times,  de- 
clared themselves  in  favor  of  the  plan  advocated  by  some  of  the 
early  Humanists,  who  assigned  the  first  place  in  importance  and 
in  the  order  of  studies  to  Greek  in  preference  to  Latin;  and  the 
modern  .conception  of  antiquity  has  furnished  new  arguments 
for  this  view.  The  German  patriots  of  the  Wars  of  Liberation, 
such  as  Fichte,  Fr.  Passow,  Fr.  Koch,  recalled  the  internal  re- 
lationship existing  between  the  Greek  and  the  German  spirit. 
Others,  among  them  Herbart,  Dissen,  Fr.  Thiersch,  stressed  the 
kinship  between  the  young  mind  and  the  poetical  and  historical 
creations  of  the  Greeks,  and  advisecl  that  the  course  of  study 
begin  with  Homer  and  then  present  in  turn  (by  drawing  upon 
Greek  classics)  lifelike  pictures  of  the  successive  periods.  Others, 
again,  championed  the  same  view  because  of  the  genetic  element 
in  a  method  that  was  so  well  adapted  to  conduct  the  student 
along  strictly  historical  lines,  whereas  the  traditional  practice  of 
the  schools  kept  the  most  impressionable  years  of  the  boy  busy 
with  what  was  but  a  derived  culture,  and  introduced  him  to  its 
source,  Greek  literature,  only  after  his  most  receptive  period 
was  over.  But  the  schools  have,  nevertheless,  not  abandoned 
their  traditional  practice,  believing  that  an  elementary  course  of 
instruction,  if  based  on  Latin,  develops  better  the  language 
consciousness;  and  they  still  uphold  the  maxim,  "From  the 
Latin  workshop  to  the  halls  of  the  Greeks."  Yet  the  reform 
movement  in  favor  of  Greek  has  improved  the  methods  of  Greek 
teaching,  has  shown  the  need  of  correlating  the  classics  with 
history,  and  has  brought  out  the  educational  value  of  unified 
and  co-ordinated  materials.1 


1  These  and  other  principles  and  undertakings  of  modern  pedagogy  will 
be  treated  more  extensively  in  the  second  volume;  here  they  are  merely  men- 
tioned as  features  of  modern  education. 


328  MODERN   EDUCATION. 

Profiting  by  the  results  of  linguistic  researches,  the  teaching 
of  modern  languages  has  been  much  improved  over  the  time 
when  merely  practical  needs  dictated  the  methods  of  language 
studies.  However,  elementary  instruction  in  the  mother-tongue 
is  still  dominated,  especially  in  Germany,  by  the  formalism  of 
Pestalozzi,  which  uses  the  language  classes  for  mental  training 
and  neglects  the  body  of  language  proper  no  less  than  the  tech- 
nics of  linguistics.  Comparative  philology  has  but  begun  to 
affect  the  teaching  of  languages,  and  after  having  proceeded 
from  phonetics  and  etymology,  it  is  now  entering  upon  the  field 
of  syntax;  but  success  will  be  attained  only  after  the  logical 
element  of  language  has  been  duly  emphasized.1  The  desire, 
which  has  been  often  expressed,  for  a  parallel  grammar  of  all 
the  languages  taught  in  the  schools  has  not  yet  been  realized, 
nor  can  it  be  realized  before  the  categories  of  grammar  and 
logic  have  been  revised;  and  to  do  this,  logic  and  philology  will 
have  to  join  hands. 

In  view  of  all  the  impulses  and  influences  emanating  from 
modern  philology,  it  might  well  seem  as  though  we  had  reason 
to  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  splendid  condition  of  lan- 
guage teaching.  Yet,  existing  conditions  do  not  warrant  too 
optimistic  a  view,  because  it  is  especially  in  language  teaching 
that  we  see  the  baneful  effects  of  the  modern  one-sidedness  of 
imparting  knowledge  at  the  expense  of  practical  skill.  Pupils  of 
the  elementary  school  cannot  write  their  mother-tongue  with 
any  degree  of  correctness.  College  graduates  cannot  write  read- 
able essays.  Educated  men  cannot  express  their  thoughts  clearly 
and  elegantly.  A  writer,  who  is  exceptionally  well  qualified  to 
speak  upon  the  ancients  and  the  Renaissance,  says  that  our  age 
is  "neglectful  of  the  first  rules  of  correct  speech  and  correct 
writing;  and  scarcely  one  out  of  a  hundred  educated  men  has 
the  faintest  idea  of  the  art  of  periodic  construction. "  He  regrets 
that  we  have  abandoned  the  "rhetoric  of  the  ancients  which 
was  an  essential  complement  of  the  general  beauty  and  liberty 
of  their  lives;"  and  that  consequently  "we  have  not  discrimina- 
tion enough  to  note  the  incongruity  of  placing  the  vulgar  beside 
what  is  refined;  while  our  rush  and  hurry  prevent  us  from  not- 
ing our  bad  taste."2  We  can  certainly  not  be  accused,  as  was 
the  Renaissance,  of  attaching  too  much  weight  to  verbal  ex- 
pression, and  we  look  with  contempt  upon  an  age  which  wasted 


1  Vol.  II.,  Ch.  XLIII,  2  and  3. 

2  Barkhardt,  Das  Leben  Constantins,  2nd  ed.,  p.  379. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.          32Q 

its  time  with  the  building  of  fine  periods;  and  if  this  attitude 
indicates  an  advance  along  one  line,  our  utter  neglect  of  form 
is  fraught  with  obvious  losses  along  other  lines.  It  would  be 
unfair  to  make  the  school  alone  responsible  for  our  disregard 
of  literary  form.  The  literary  pabulum  of  the  vast  majority  of 
present-day  readers  consists  exclusively  of  newspapers  and  popu- 
lar magazines,  and  the  notoriously  slovenly  style  of  these  organs 
of  the  press  is  assuredly  more  responsible  for  the  prevalent  lack 
of  literary  taste  than  are  the  schools,  although  the  latter  might, 
it  is  true,  with  improved  methods  of  teaching,  stem  the  tide  of 
weak  and  flabby  language  with  which  we  are  at  present  drifting. 
A  further  factor  that  militates  against  beauty  of  language,  is 
the  practical  aim  of  most  of  our  present-day  writers,  and  though 
this  circumstance  may  produce  a  certain  terseness  and  clear- 
ness, yet  it  means  a  loss  in  purity  and  neatness  of  style. 

3.  While  the  scientific  development  of  philology  has  been  a 
direct  gain  to  the  schools,  by  transforming  and  infusing  a  new 
spirit  into  an  old  school  subject,  the  benefit  accruing  from  the 
new  development  of  philosophy  was  purely  indirect  and  did  not 
affect  materially  the  instruction  in  philosophy.  The  systems 
that  established  a  close  relationship  between  Kantianism  and 
the  pantheism  of  the  latter  Renaissance,  could  not  long  remain 
in  control  of  the  schools,  but  they  have  nevertheless  exerted  a 
favorable  influence  on  scientific  research  work  as  well  as  on 
some  of  the  school  subjects.  Schelling's  philosophy  influenced 
the  natural  sciences  most,  and  Hegel's,  the  historical  sciences. 
Some  scholars  underrate  the  services  of  Schelling  and  Hegel, 
whereas  many  of  the  principles  that  are  of  supreme  importance 
for  scientific  research  have  been  established  by  these  two  phi- 
losophers. The  teachings  of  these  philosophers  were  strong 
forces  in  Ritter's  reform  of  geography,  in  Boeckh's  systematiz- 
ing of  philology,  furthermore,  in  establishing  aesthetics  as  a  new 
and  separate  science,  and  in  applying  the  historical  method  to 
the  various  departments  of  learning.  They  furthered,  to  some 
extent,  even  the  restoration  of  Christian  philosophy,  for  they 
co-operated  with  the  latter  in  opposing  the  philosophy  of  the 
Enlightenment.  They  furnished  some  motives  also  for  the  science 
of  education,1  though  fewer  in  number  than  were  supplied  by 
the  speculative  realism  of  Herbart,  which  was  based  on  Leib- 
nitz.2 But  none  of  these  schools  of  thought  supplied  higher 

1  Cf.  supra,  p.  44  and  p.  60. 

2  Supra,  p.  28. 


33O  MODERN  EDUCATION. 

education  with  anything  equal  to  what  the  older  schools  had 
possessed  in  the  elementary  philosophy  based  on  Aristotle.  Hegel, 
and  especially  Herbart,  gave  some  thought  to  this  matter,  but 
neither  did  anything  positive;  and  Herbart  changed  his  views  on 
this  point  so  often  that  his  real  opinion  cannot  be  stated  with 
certainty.  Many  circumstances  conspired  to  let  the  instruction 
in  philosophy  appear  inadvisable.  The  popular  philosophy  which 
had  prevailed  towards  the  end  of  the  i8th  century  so  largely  in 
the  schools,  had  to  give  way,  when  the  theological  and  philo- 
logical elements  reasserted  themselves,  and  men  were  apt  to 
regard  these  latter  subjects  along  with  mathematics  as  more 
useful  than  the  formal  study  of  philosophy,  assuming  that  the 
improved  methods  of  these  sciences  would  develop  the  mental 
powers  more  effectually  than  any  training  to  theorize  about  the 
laws  of  reasoning.  Moreover,  the  development  of  speculative 
thought  affected  those  philosophical  disciplines  that  had  for- 
merly been  regarded  as  impervious  to  change,  and  as  offering, 
therefore,  a  neutral  ground  between  the  conflicting  systems, 
which  fact  had  fitted  them  admirably  to  serve  as  propaedeutic 
branches.  Kant,  however,  joined  logic,  as  a  transcendental 
science,  with  the  theory  of  knowledge,  and  Hegel  made  it  an 
objective  science,  a  criticism  of  the  understanding  practically 
identical  with  metaphysics.  Empirical  psychology,  which  Kant 
had  treated  in  the  form  of  anthropology,  valuing  it  as  a  school 
subject,  had  lost  in  favor  because  of  the  many  divergent  opin- 
ions concerning  the  speculative  basis  of  the  science  of  the  soul. 
Ethics,  too,  being  almost  wholly  neglected,  could  not  be  con- 
densed into  an  elem.entary  form.  Hence  the  study  of  philos- 
ophy has  either  disappeared  entirely  from  the  schools,  or  is 
treated  as  a  mere  appendage  of  other  branches.  As  taught  in 
the  universities,  philosophy  is  confined,  owing  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  professional  studies,  to  so  narrow  a  field  as  to  be  of 
scarcely  any  educational  value.  There  is  a  tendency  at  present 
to  divide  philosophy  into  many  new  sciences,  so  that  the  very 
science  that  should  represent,  amid  the  modern  division  of 
scientific  research,  unity  and  universality,  is  in  danger  of  falling 
a  prey  to  specialization.  Just  as  earlier  thinkers  hoped  that  an 
application  of  the  "geometrical  method"  to  philosophy  would 
lead  to  the  establishment  of  universally  recognized  principles, 
so  some  modern  thinkers  try  to  attain  the  same  end  by  bringing 
about  a  closer  union  between  philosophy  and  the  nafural  sci- 
ences. However,  better  results  will  be  obtained  from  the  his- 
torical treatment  of  philosophy,  for  this  treatment  familiarizes 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.          33! 

the  student  with  the  best  philosophic  thought  of  the  ages.  We 
must,  undoubtedly,  turn  also  to  the  history  of  philosophy  to 
ascertain  which  elements  are  best  adapted  to  serve  as  the  foun- 
dation of  an  elementary  course  in  philosophy.  Trendelenburg 
acted  on  this  principle  when  he  made  the  Elementa  logices  Ari- 
stotelicce  the  textbook  in  philosophy.1 

4.  The  spirit  of  the  present  time  is  as  unfavorable  to  the 
theological  element  of  education  as  to  the  philosophical.  The 
naturalist  refuses  to  recognize  theology  as  a  science;  the  so- 
called  "higher  critic"  scorns  it  as  an  explanation  of  myths;  and 
the  indifferentist  is  apathetically  tolerant  of  what  has  been 
handed  down  from  the  past  under  the  name  of  theology.  How- 
ever, the  historical  view  has  led  to  a  trtfer  conception  of  the 
value,  especially  the  educational  value,  of  theology;  for  the 
historian  must  confess  that  Christianity  has  been  for  nineteen 
hundred  years  a  creative  force  in  the  civilization  of  the  world, 
and  that,  consequently,  our  whole  life  and  being  are  interwoven 
with  the  ideas  and  ideals  of  Christianity,  and  that  it  is,  there- 
fore, the  duty  of  the  school  to  interpret  and  transmit  to  future 
generations  this  Christian  heritage.  Without  a  deep  knowledge 
of  Christianity,  the  modern  man  is,  in  fact,  unintelligible  to 
himself.  From  this  point  of  view,  the  study  of  Christianity 
must  be  pursued  alongside  of  the  study  of  antiquity,  because 
classical  antiquity  is  likewise,  though  pot  in  the  same  degree  as 
Christianity,  a  creative  force  in  our  historical  development;2 
and  thus  we  witness  the  spectacle  of  the  two  mighty  powers, 
which  had  for  centuries  struggled  for  the  supremacy  of  the 
world,  now  meeting  peacefully  on  historical  ground  and  co- 
operating with  each  other  in  order  to  let  the  modern  youth 
understand  himself  and  his  environment.  But  as  the  study  of 
classical  antiquity  not  only  supplies  the  historical  basis  of  mod- 
ern education,  but  also  gives  it  an  aesthetical  and  broadly  human 
character,  so  the  Christian  element  also  meets,  over  and  above 
its  historical  value,  the  transcendental  aims  and  tendencies  of 
human  nature.  And,  again,  as  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics 
makes  the  educative  process  plastic,  so  the  Christian  element 
preserves  the  connection  with  those  moral  and  religious  aims 
that  are  essential  to  serious  and  contented  work. 

1  Cf.  Vol.  II.,  Ch.  XXIV,  and  Ch.  XLV. 

2  "European  civilization,"  says  Gladstone,  "from  the  Middle  Ages  down- 
wards is  the  compound  of  two  great  factors,  the  Christian  religion  for  the 
spirit  of  man,  and  the  Greek,  and  in  a  secondary  degree  the  Roman,  discipline 
for  his  mind  and  intellect. "     Cyclopedia  of  Education,  s.  v.  Gladstone. 


332  MODERN   EDUCATION. 

Reasoning  .such  as  this,  which  approaches  the  subject  of 
religious  instruction  from  without,  is  appreciated  by  the  modern 
man.  But  in  his  worship  of  the  real  and  the  material,  the 
modern  man  does  not  feel,  not  even  in  that  part  of  his  soul 
which  is  not  yet  consumed  with  materialism  and  subjectivism, 
the  need  of — or  what  one  may  call  the  homesickness  for — the 
ideal  and  the  spiritual.  The  irreligiousness  of  so  many  of  our 
contemporaries  differs  essentially  from  the  irreligiousness  of  the 
1 8th  century:  the  latter  was  anxious  to  retain  certain  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  and,  while  discarding  much  of  the  deposit  of 
Faith,  presumed  to  revise  the  teachings  of  the  Church;  but  our 
age  has  a  certain  sense  of  the  individuality  and  even  the  organic 
unity  of  Faith,  and  is  hence  preserved  at  least  from  the  pathetic 
fallacy  of  fancying  that  irreligiousness  is  better  qualified  to 
adjudge  what  pertains  to  Faith  than  Faith  itself.  For  this 
reason,  if  for  no  other,  our  age  will  never  follow  the  example  of 
Basedow,  Bahrdt,  etc.,  in  substituting  for  the  subject-matter  of 
theological  science  the  philosophy  of  the  Enlightenment.  Even 
the  indifferentism  of  the  present  day  would  shrink  from  diluting 
Faith  in  so  unnatural  a  way,  for  it  is  at  least  realistic  enough  to 
demand  that  each  and  everything  be  judged  in  accordance  with 
its  own  nature. 

Theology,  having  grown  strong  in  its  internal  organization, 
contributed  its  goodly  share  toward  the  truer  conception  just 
mentioned.  It  has,  moreover,  been  a  deep  influence  in  the 
defining  of  the  general  scope  of  education.  Theological  pedagogy 
in  the  form  in  which  it  began  to  develop  in  the  early  I9th  cen- 
tury, is  an  important  factor  in  our  system  of  education.  The 
writings  of  Dursch,  Dupanloup,  Palmer,  Gustav  Baur,  etc.,  have 
demonstrated  that  theological  pedagogy  is  not  "a  collection  of 
pious  phrases,  nor  a  pedagogical  sermon,  but  enters,  on  the  one 
hand,  unabashed  into  all  the  details  and  circumstances  of  daily 
life,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  utilizes  all  that  pedagogical  thought, 
or  science,  or  the  experience  of  the  classroom  has  disclosed. " 
Theological  pedagogy  has  been  an  eminent  factor  in  combating 
the  older  individualistic  conception  and  has  fostered  the  social 
and  ethical  view  of  education;  it  has  proved  a  defence  against 
the  encroachments  of  subjectivism,  which  tried  to  degrade  the 
educational  content  to  a  mere  tool;  it  has  given  the  impetus  to 
writing  the  history  of  education;  has  co-operated  with  the  phi- 
losophy of  education;  has  thrown  the  pedagogy  of  the  secondary 

1  Palmer,  Evangelische  Padagogik,  1852,  preface  to  the  first  edition. 


THE    CONTENT    OF    MODERN    EDUCATION.  333 

school  into  a  higher  perspective;  has  furnished  the  curriculum  of 
the  elementary  school  with  a  rich  content;  and  has  given  rise  to 
pedagogical  collections  which  exercise  a  wide  influence  on  edu- 
cational studies.  The  whole  development  of  theological  peda- 
gogy demonstrates  that  Christianity  is  still  a  powerful  force, 
and  that  the  oldest  of  the  sciences  is  not  at  all  in  its  dotage,  but 
is  vigorous  enough  to  maintain  its  place  in  the  midst  of  the  new 
growth  of  branches  of  knowledge. 

5.  The  historical  sciences  represent  an  element  of  modern 
education  that  has  many  ramifications.  The  higher  schools 
have  introduced  a  systematic  and  well-graded  study  of  history. 
Pictures,  maps,  charts,  and  other  illustrative  helps  supplement 
the  written  records.  Modern  methodology  requires  the  students 
to  consult,  as  far  as  possible,  the  original  sources,  and  to  trace 
the  historical  development  of  every  branch  of  the  curriculum. 
The  elementary  school  has  taken  up  the  study  of  local"  and 
national  history,  and  "thus  meets,  at  least  in  part,  the  demand 
for  historical  object  lessons.  The  general  reader  has  access  to  a 
rich  historical  literature,  .beginning  with  the  historical  classics 
down  to  the  historical  novel  which  is  born  of  the  union  of  his- 
tory and  literature.  The  arts  assist  the  instruction  in  history 
with  historical  paintings,  statues,  and  historical  representations 
of  all  kinds;  and  even  music  transfers  us  in  its  historical  pro- 
ductions to  the  past.  Special  societies  are  founded  to  encourage 
the  study  of  local  or  national  history  and  to  preserve  historically 
important  sites;  and  every  traveller's  guide-book  records  not 
only  the  sights,  but  also  the  memorable  deeds  connected  there- 
with. Still,  this  whole  apparatus  has  not  made  what  may  be 
called  historical  education  a  common  possession,  for  all  the 
historical  interest  amounts  frequently  to  only  a  listless  reading  of 
a  few  pages  of  history.  Yet  these  agencies  have,  nevertheless, 
an  important  function.  Even  though  historical  polymathy  does 
not  unearth  the  entire  educative  content  of  history,  still  it 
renders  one  or  the  other  element  of  it  available;  at  least,  it 
counterbalances  the  materialistic  tendency,  prevents  absorption 
in  the  interests  of  the  day,  and  teaches  men  to  look  at  the  world 
and- human  events  with  other  eyes  than  those  of  the  egoist. 
After  all  it  is  as  yet  too  early  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  edu- 
cational and  cultural  value  of  a  subject  that  has  been  but  lately 
introduced  into  the  schools,  and  we  must  bide  a  longer  time 
before  appraising  the  results  of  a  study  that  may  yet  prove  an 
essential  factor  in  deepening  and  otherwise  correcting  the  edu- 
cative process. 


334  MODERN    EDUCATION. 

The  modern  science  of  geography  is  based  on  the  sciences  of 
nature  and  the  sciences  of  man,  especially  the  history  of  man; 
and  the  latter  fact  is  stressed  most  in  geography  as  a  school 
subject.  The  educational  value  of  geography  was  clearly  recog- 
nized in  the  i8th  century.  Kant  considered  geography  as  a 
"physical,  ethical,  and  political  science,"  which  "spreads  before 
us  a  large  map  of  the  human  race."  He  valued  it  highly  be- 
cause it  "prevents  the  immature  pupil  from  reasoning  before  he 
possesses  sufficient  historical  knowledge,  the  latter  being  the 
only  substitute  for  a  boy's  lack  of  experience. "  Rousseau  and 
the  Philanthropinists  cultivated  successfully  the  illustrative  side 
of  geography  and  also  restored  the  vitalizing  connection  between 
the  pupil's  environment  and  the  world  at  large.  Karl  Ritter's 
reform  of  geography  was  first  suggested  by  Gutsmuths'  instruc- 
tion in  his  school  at  Schnepfenthal,  and  was  realized  when 
Ritter  adopted  Pestalozzi's  principle  that  the  function  of  the 
educator  is  to  assist  the  natural  development  so  as  to  secure 
natural,  symmetrical,  and  harmonious  progress.2  Ritter's  re- 
form made  geography  a  science  by  establishing  it  as  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  sciences  of  nature  and  the  sciences  of 
man.  He  proved  that  history  must  be  co-ordinated  with  geog- 
raphy. He  made  all  the  ramifications  of  geographical  science 
meet  in  one  point,  /.  ^.,  all  the  phases  of  nature  were  to  be  studied 
in  their  relation  to  man:  the  shape  of  the  earth,  topography, 
climate,  fauna,  and  flora — all  were  studied  from  the  viewpoint 
of  their  influence  on  the  life  of  man.  The  idealism  which  this 
teleological  conception  of  Ritter  introduced  into  the  science  has 
given  a  higher  interest  to  geographical  studies  than  would  ever 
be  possible  from  the  viewpoint  of  sordid  utilitarianism — a  com- 
mon enough  viewpoint  in  geography — and  has  connected  it 
with  the  highest  interests  of  the  race.  The  natural  sciences 
have  combined  with  history  and  graphic  art  to  furnish  geog- 
raphy with  a  splendid  apparatus;  modern  inventions  have  anni- 
hilated space  and  distance,  and  have  made  geography  as  needful 
a  science  for  travel  and  commerce  as  it  is  a  pleasant  occupation. 
The  schools  have  thus  gained  a  new  subject  which,  however, 
may  lead,  in  the  case  of  poor  teaching  methods,  to  distraction 
or  excessive  memory  work.  Still  the  wise  teacher  will  welcome 
geography  as  an  excellent  means  for  correlating  such  knowledge 

1  Kant,    Ueber  P&dagogik,  edited   by  Willmann,  p.  ii;    Complete 
edited  by  Hartenstein,  II,  p.  320. 

2  Cf.  supra,  p.  68. 


THE  CONTENT  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION.  335 

as  might  otherwise  remain  unco-ordinated,  particularly  history 
and  the  natural  sciences. 

6.  The  old  education  treated  nature  from  its  formal  side 
only,  and  an  elementary  knowledge  of  mathematics  was  con- 
sidered sufficient  for  all  practical  needs.  Modern  education, 
however,  has  enlarged  the  scope  of  both  the  mathematical  and 
the  natural  sciences.  The  natural  sciences  are  to-day  no  less 
important  in  general  education  than  in  the  everyday  life  of  the 
people.  Their  importance  for  the  trades  and  industries  renders' 
them  indispensable  in  vocational  training.  Formerly  the  tradi- 
tions, as  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  sufficed  in  many 
trades  in  which  at  the  present  time — owing  to  the  improved 
methods  introduced  by  technology  and  the  applied  sciences— 
a  systematic  education  is  required.  The  farmer  and  the  manu- 
facturer must  take  note  of  the  findings  of  such  sciences  as  natural 
history  and  chemistry.  The  superintendent  of  a  large  industrial 
establishment  stands  in  need  of  technological  training.  Medicine, 
military  science,  engineering — all  have  been  revolutionized  by 
the  progress  made  in  the  natural  sciences.  All  professional 
schools,  whether  of  secondary  or  more  advanced  grade,  rightly 
demand  of  the  general  cultural  schools  that  they  familiarize 
their  students  with  the  elements  of  the  natural  sciences.  But 
over  and  above  this  demand,  no  school  of  general  culture  may 
ignore  an  element  that  plays  so  important  a  role  in  the  daily 
life  of  all  of  us.  The  educated  man  may  not  be  a  stranger  in 
the  new  world  discovered  by  the  natural  sciences,  but  must,  to 
say  the  least,  have  the  key  that  will  unlock  for  him  the  intel- 
lectual work  that  is  embodied  in  the  scientific  and  technical 
achievements  of  the  modern  world,  and  must  be  able  to  discuss 
intelligently  the  train  of  thought  that  has  made  the  dreams  of 
the  inventive  genius  a  reality. 

As  a  school  subject,  the  natural  sciences  are  still  in  their 
infancy,  and  they  are  still  being  studied  from  the  narrow  utili- 
tarian point  of  view.  We  must,  however,  take  a  different 
viewpoint  to  discover  the  educative  content  of  these  sciences. 
The  educational  function  of  the  natural  sciences  is  to  lead  the 
student  to  study  nature  and  her  objects  by  himself,  to  train  his 
powers  of  independent  observation  and  investigation,  and  to  let 
his  knowledge  of  nature  grow  from  continual  communing  with 
her.  But  the  subject-matter  taught  at  present  is  out  of  all 
proportion  to,  and  not  properly  co-ordinated  with,  the  vast  and 
varied  fields  of  research.  Nothing  has  yet  been  done  to  corre- 
late these  modern  studies  with  what  must  ever  remain  the  core 


336  MODERN   EDUCATION. 

of  general  education,  the  ancient  classics.  Educationists  have 
not  yet  accepted  the  Herbartian  view  which  solves  the  problem 
by  proceeding  from  the  end  of  man  and  then  makes  the  vital 
and  unified  fields  in  which  man  labors  to  shape  and  control 
nature,  the  basis  of  all  studies.  We  have  not  even  established 
anything  approaching  a  close  union  between  mathematics  and 
the  natural  sciences;  but  it  is  only  after  these  two  subjects 
have  been  closely  co-ordinated  that  we  can  expect  to  reap  their 
best  educational  benefits. 

Mathematics,  though  not  correlated  as  formerly,  has  re- 
mained in  form  essentially  the  same.  It  is  owing  to  Pestalozzi's 
suggestions,  that  object  lessons  and  mental  arithmetic  now  pre- 
cede the  study  of  mathematics.  This  subject  should  also  profit 
by  the  practical  subjects  that  are  now  a  part  of  the  curriculum. 
But  our  school  mathematics  is  still  based  in  its  essentials  on 
Euclid;  nor  has  it  been  correlated  with  the  preparatory  or  the 
parallel  subjects.  While  modern  thinkers  do  not  deny  that  the 
demonstrative  method  is  a  masterpiece  of  logical  thinking,  still 
they  maintain  that  it  cannot  serve  as  an  adequate  form  for  the 
content  of  the  science  of  magnitudes.  Nevertheless,  our  in- 
struction in  mathematics  is  still  following  the  methods  of  a 
system  whose  acme  of  development  is  represented  by  the  five 
regular  solids,  the  object  of  the  mathematical  cult  of  the  Pytha- 
goreans. Thus  this  branch  also  appears  to  be  incomplete,  not 
as  though  it  were,  like  the  natural  sciences,  a  new  subject,  but 
because  its  new  and  old  elements  are  not  correlated  with  each 
other. 

Defective  correlation  is,  in  fact,  quite  general  in  our  course 
of  study.  Our  course  of  study  has  been  augmented,  not  by 
growth,  but  by  accretion;  and  modern  educators,  while  striving 
to  preserve  the  framework  of  the  course,  have  often  torn  asunder 
what  should  have  remained  one  undivided  whole.  They  have 
given  too  much  consideration  to  the  individual  elements  of  the 
course,  and  have  thus  lost  sight  of  the  one  whole  field  of  edu- 
cation. Instead  of  first  providing  a  solid  and  fixed  centre  of 
well-digested  knowledge  and  the  means  for  acquiring  practical 
skill,  they  have  scattered  their  energies  and  have  made  our 
course  of  study  too  rich  and  diversified,  by  introducing  encyclo- 
pedic knowledge  (which  is  a  valuable  adjunct  if  kept  on  the 
outer  circle  of  education)  into  the  innermost  department  of 
education. 

With  regard  to  the  number,  the  spread,  and  the  practical 
arrangement  of  the  elements  of  encyclopedic  knowledge,  our  age 


THE   MODERN  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  337 

is  far  superior  to  any  previous  period.  Encyclopedias,  both 
popular  and  scientific,  and  works  of  reference  of  all  varieties 
are  at  hand  to  furnish  in  a  moment  any  information  desired; 
newspapers  and  magazines  without  number  furnish  knowledge 
and  information;  museums  are  open  to  all  comers  desiring  object 
lessons  in  the  various  fields  of  knowledge  and  art;  international 
expositions,  marvellous  encyclopedias,  so  to  speak,  of  the  arts 
and  industries,  display  to  the  world,  to  specialist  and  layman, 
the  latest  achievements  in  every  field  of  human  endeavor.  The 
hurry  and  bustle  of  modern  life  is  ever  giving  new  impulses  to 
the  varied  interests;  is  ever  discovering  new  sources  of  culture. 
But  there  is  also  danger  lest  our  modern  life  spend  itself  on  a 
thousand  different  subjects,  and  lest  education,  while  madly 
rushing  after  the  novel,  forfeit  its  solid  foundation  and  its  in- 
herited wealth. 


CHAPTER. XXX. 
The  Modern  School  System. 

i.  The  three  great  fields  of  instruction  with  their  historical 
centres:  the  elementary  school,  the  Latin  school,  and  the  uni- 
versity, were  considerably  enlarged  in  the  I9th  century  and 
were  also  brought  into  certain  definite  relations  with  one  an- 
other. 

There  are  at  present  several  different  systems  for  organizing 
the  elementary  schools  of  a  country.  But  the  highest  esteem  is 
justly  accorded  to  the  elementary  school  system  of  the  Ger- 
manic countries,  including  Germany,  Austria,  Switzerland,  Den- 
mark, and  Scandinavia.  This  system  presupposes  in  the  first 
place  that  the  intellectual  needs  of  society  are  relatively  iden- 
tical, and  this  will  not  be  the  case  until  the  relations  between 
the  different  classes  of  the  people  be  such  as  to  permit  the  ele- 
mentary schools  of  the  higher  classes  to  be  amalgamated  with 
the  elementary  schools  of  the  lower  classes.  Wherever  this 
agreement  has  not  been  reached,  the  elementary  schools  of  the 
higher  classes  are  private  schools,  while  the  elementary  schools 
of  the  lower  classes  are  charitable  institutions.  This  is  the  case 
in  England  where  the  sons  of  the  gentry  are  educated  at  home 
or  in  private  schools,  while  the  children  of  the  working  classes 
are  provided  for  in  tl\e  schools  conducted  by  charitable  societies 
22 


MODERN   EDUCATION. 

(see  supra,  Ch.  xxvii.),  and  only  since  the  passing  of  the  Ele- 
mentary Education  Act  of  1870  are  the  poor  schools  supported 
and  controlled  by  the  State.  A  further  presupposition  for  a 
national  elementary  school  system  is  the  co-operation  between 
the  State  and  the  Church,  and  though  this  co-operation  may  be 
regulated  according  to  different  points  of  view,  it  must  at  all 
events  allow  the  Church  so  large  a  share  in  the  education  of 
the  young  as  will  not  oblige  her  to  organize  her  own  elementary 
school  system  in  order'  to  safeguard  her  children's  rights  of 
conscience. 

Inasmuch  as  the  modern  elementary  school  system  retains 
the  religious  teachings  of  Christianity,  it  is  preserving  the  noble 
traditions  of  the  past  that  have  ever  been  the,  foundation  of  the 
elementary  school  system  in  Christian  countries.  But,  while 
thus  duly  conservative,  it  has  also  incorporated  certain  features 
of  modern  educational  development.  The  modern  elementary 
school  system  delimits  its  subject-matter  of  teaching  from  that 
of  the  higher  schools,  and  establishes  it  as  a  didactic  unit.  Acting 
on  the  suggestion  of  Pestalozzi,  it  makes  the  elementary  school 
branches  elements  of  formal  training  by  converting  grammar, 
arithmetic,  and  form  study  into  somewhat  of  an  equivalent  of 
philology  and  mathematics.  Imitating  the  example  of  the  patri- 
otic Pestalozzians,  it  introduces  the  national  element,  such  as 
local  and  national  history,  singing  of  patriotic  hymns,  and  gym- 
nastics, into  the  curriculum.  And  acting  on  the  principles  of  the 
Philanthropinists,  it  adds  as  many  as  possible  of  the  modern  and 
directly  useful  subjects. 

The  elementary  school  system  includes  primarily  the  elemen- 
tary school,  which  is  either  a  city  school  or  a  rural  school,  and 
either  public  or  private.  The  function  of  the  elementary  school 
is  to  lay  the  foundation,  to  teach  the  rudiments  (upon  which  a 
higher  course  of  study  may  thereafter  be  based),  and  at  the 
same  time  to  fit  its  pupils  for  their  life  work  because  the  vast 
majority  of  them  will  never  attend  a  higher  school.  Some  in- 
stitutions, such  as  the  kindergarten,  prepare  for  the  primary 
school,  while  others,  such  as  continuation  schools,  night  schools, 
summer  schools,  folk  high  schools  (in  Sweden  and  Denmark), 
continue  the  work  of  the  elementary  school.  The  function  of  a 
third  class  of  institutions  is  the  elementary  education  of  special 
classes  of  children:  orphanages,  reform  schools,  schools  for  the 
blind,  deaf-mutes,  feeble-minded,  etc.  The  last  category  of 
schools  originated  in  the  i8th  century  (Francke,  Oberlin,  Haiiy, 


THE  MODERN  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  339 


L'Epee,  Heinicke,  and  others),  but  developed  only  in  the 
century  (Fellenberg,  Wehrli,  Falk,  Chr.  H.  Zeller,  Wichern,etc.). 
Training  schools  for  elementary  school  teachers  —  normal 
schools,  teachers'  seminaries,  teachers'  colleges  —  are  an  integral 
part  of  the  common  school  system.  The  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  these  training  schools  depend  not  only  on  the  demand 
of  the  government  for  a  certain  degree  of  knowledge  and  skill 
in  the  teachers,  but  also  on  spontaneous  movements  among  the 
teaching  body.  The  teaching  profession  of  Germany  and  the 
German  normal  schools  are  deeply  indebted  to  the  pedagogy  of 
the  elementary  school,  as  developed  since  Pestalozzi.  When 
L.  v.  Stein  observes  that  the  German  elementary  school  system 
is  based  on  science,  the  French,  on  administrative  organization, 
and  the  English,  on  the  individual  power  of  single  persons  and 
societies,1  he  seems  to  anticipate  that  the  pedagogics  of  the 
elementary  school  will  develop  into  a  science.  This  is,  of  course, 
desirable;  yet  the  pedagogy  of  the  elementary  school  cannot  be 
recognized  as  an  independent  science,  but  only  as  a  part  of  the 
whole  science  of  education. 

Lest  we  overestimate  the  results  obtained  by  and  through 
the  elementary  school  system,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  many 
demands  made  upon  the  elementary  school  and  the  inadequate 
means  at  hand  to  meet  these  demands.  The  elementary  school 
must  provide  the  working  classes  with  all  the  knowledge  they 
need  or  find  helpful,  must  broaden  and  develop  their  minds; 
but  may  at  the  same  time  not  forget  that  the  children  will  be 
left  to  their  own  resources,  once  they  are  thrown  upon  a  hard 
and  cruel  world,  where  their  attainments  will  only  bring  them 
to  grief  unless  they  have  within  them,  in  their  conscience,  the 
mainstay  to  support  them  against  the  attacks  of  passion  and 
egoism.  The  mere  addition  of  new  branches  to  the  'curriculum 
does  not  imply  an  increase  in  useful  knowledge,  much  less  a 
growth  in  practical  skill,  but  tends  rather  to  destroy  harmony 
and  to  prevent  the  unified  efforts  possible  in  former  times, 
when  the  course  of  study  was  less  comprehensive.  And  this 
danger  is  all  the  more  approximate  since  modern  methodology  is 
concerned  more  with  the  methods  of  individual  subjects  than 
with  the  concentric  and  harmonious  development  of  the  educa- 
tional content  as  a  whole.  The  training  of  the  teacher  offers 
the  same  difficulties.  His  future  field  of  labor  is  very  limited, 
and  demands  that  he  devote  himself  whole-souled  to  his  humble 


Veriaaltungslehre^  V,  p.  80. 


34O  MODERN   EDUCATION. 

work  rather  than  that  he  should  possess  extensive  knowledge 
and  have  wide  and  varied  interests;  and  yet  the  normal  school 
must  do  more  than  merely  fit  him  for  the  branches  he  is  to 
teach — it  must  prepare  him  to  meet  the  intellectual  requirements 
made  of  the  modern  teaching  profession.  Different  attempts 
have  been  made  to  reconcile  these  clashing  interests.  For  in- 
stance, Diesterweg  demands  that  the  teacher  "be  in  his  own 
circle  the  centre  and  master  of  learning  and  culture,  and  second 
to  none  in  many-sidedness,"  and  devote  himself  particularly  to 
the  study  of  the  natural  sciences.  These  are  the  principles 
underlying  the  program  of  studies  that  Diesterweg  outlined  for 
normal  schools.  The  Prussian  school  regulations  of  1854  de- 
scribed as  the  aim  of  the  teachers'  seminaries  "to  fit  the  students 
to  grasp  and  master  in  all  its  bearings  the  subject-matter  of 
elementary  school  instruction."  They  substituted  the  so-called 
Schulkuride  for  pedagogy  and  didactics  and  abolished  universal 
history  and  literature,  but  increased  the  amount  of  memory 
work  to  be  done  in  Christian  doctrine.  This  system  of  too 
narrow  a  concentration  was  out  of  harmony  with  the  best  edu- 
cational thought  since  the  time  of  Harnisch,  Zeller,  and  Pesta- 
lozzi,  but  it  has  now  given  way  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and 
voices  are  again  heard  complaining  that  the  elementary  school 
teachers  are  superficially  educated  and  that  they  waste  their 
energy  on  subjects  foreign  to  their  profession.  We  have  here  a 
problem  that  is  extremely  difficult  to  solve,  and  it  remains  for 
the  future  to  outline  such  a  course  of  study  for  the  normal 
school  as  will  possess  unity  by  meeting  in  all  its  parts  the  basic 
aims  of  the  elementary  school,  but  as  will,  at  the  same  time, 
meet  also  the  demands  of  a  broader  culture.  This  problem 
could  be  solved  if  the  pedagogics  of  the  elementary  school  de- 
veloped systematically  and  continuously;  however,  at  present  it 
is  concerned  with  so  many  details  as  to  hold  out  no  hope  of 
reaching  in  the  near  future  any  definite  and  practical  conclusion 
to  govern  the  educative  process  as  a  whole.  Still,  the  newly 
awakened  historical  interest  may  be  expected  to  correct  many 
mistakes. 

2.  The  Latin  school  has  developed  into  the  gymnasium  of 
to-day,  while  the  Reahchule  and  the  commercial  and  industrial 
schools  have  branched  off  from  the  Latin  school  and  fit  youths 
for  other  than  the  learned  professions. 

The  scope  of  the  modern  gymnasium^  has   been   definitely 

1  The  term  gymnasium   is  employed  only  in  Germany  and  Austria;  the 
corresponding  schools  are  known  in  Italy  as  Ginnasi  and  Licei,  in  France  as 


THE    MODERN   SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  34! 

delimited  from  the  field  of  the  elementary  school  as  well  as 
from  the  work  of  the  university.  No  student  can  matriculate 
at  the  university  before  passing  the  "Reifepriifung",1  which  is 
the  examination  at  the  end  of  the  full  course  of  the  gymnasium. 
The  gymnasium  has  a  double  function:  on  the  one  hand,  to 
prepare  for  the  work  of  the  university,  and  on  the  other,  to  give 
the  student  a  world-view  that  is  broad  because  based  on  his- 
torical grounds.  As  preparing  for  the  university,  the  gymnasium 
is  the  elementary  school  of  science,  but  as  imparting  a  world- 
view,  it  may  be  considered  the  final  stage  of  a  general  education. 
The  old  Latin  school  had  a  similar  double  function,  but  in  its 
case  the  function  was  fulfilled  by  stressing  one  and  the  same 
subject,  Latinity,  which  was  both  the  A  B  C  of  the  sciences  and 
the  accomplishment  universally  expected  of  the  gentleman.  But 
modern  conditions  have  changed  this,  and  the  double  function 
can  no  longer  be  fulfilled  by  the  classics  alone.  The  gymnasium 
had  to  introduce  the  modern  subjects  in  order  to  hold  its  own 
as  an  institution  of  general  education;  for  to  retain  this  dis- 
tinction, it  had  to  admit  the  studies  that  play  so  important  a 
role  in  modern  life.  In  view  of  its  relation  to  the  university, 
the  gymnasium  may  not  depart  from  its  traditional  policy  of 
making  its  course  of  study  a  unified  whole  and  one  that  is  well 
adapted  to  serve  as  a  preparation  for  the  special  studies  of  the 
university.  The  gymnasium  represents,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
culmination  also  of  secondary  training,  and  society  and  the 
State  (at  least  in  Germany)  attach  certain  privileges  to  gradu- 
ation from  it.  The  modern  gymnasium  must  not  only  deal  with 
a  considerably  increased  curriculum,  but  must  also  satisfy  the 
wants  of  a  very  diversified  student  body,  some  of  whom  will 
later  be  engaged  in  fields  of  work  that  have  little  connection 
with  science  or  classical  antiquity.  The  demands  of  the  modern 
studies  as  well  as  of  the  practically-minded  students  are  at  once 


Lycees  or  Colleges,  in  Belgium  as  Athen6es,  in  Switzerland  as  Colleges  or 
Canton  Schools,  in  the  United  States  as  High  Schools  and  Colleges,  in  England 
as  Colleges  and  Grammar  Schools,  and  in  Sweden  as  Larowerk. 

1  The  "Reifepriifung"  of  the  German  gymnasium  is  unknown  in  the  Latin 
school  of  England,  as  the  English  universities  require  matriculation  examina- 
tions. In  Scotland,  Holland,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  in  the  United  States  also, 
some  of  the  propaedeutic  studies  are  pursued  at  the  university.  Latin  is  still 
taught  in  some  of  the  Scotch  parochial  schools,  so  that  it  is  no  unusual  thing 
there  to  have  "a  barefooted  girl  translate  a  chapter  from  Caesar,  or  a  boy 
called  from  his  work  in  the  fields  read  a  passage  from  the  jEneid."  Eckstein 
in  Schmid's  Enzyklopddie^^l,  p.  558. 


342  MODERN    EDUCATION. 

a  burden  and  a  danger  to  the  gymnasium,  and  threaten  to  es- 
trange it  from  its  distinctive  function  of  the  past.  Still,  these 
very  demands  demonstrate  the  power  wielded  by  the  gymna- 
sium, and  the  latter  may  upon  no  condition  abandon  its  task  of 
spreading  among  large  numbers  of  the  population  the  influence 
of  a  broadly  cultural  training. 

The  secondary  school  systems  of  the  different  countries  do 
not  take  the  same  position  in  regard  to  these  modern  problems 
confronting  the  college  and  the  gymnasium.  England  has  as 
yet  made  no  attempt  to  organize  and  articulate  its  system  of 
higher  and  lower  schools.  The  grammar  schools  have  preserved 
the  type  of  Latin  school  of  the  i6th  century,  and  the  conserva- 
tive Englishmen  point  to  them  as  the  links  connecting  their 
present  schools  with  the  past  and  as  the  checks  against  the 
inroads  of  modern  cosmopolitan  tendencies.  The  aim  of  the 
grammar  schools  is  to  train  gentlemen  by  means  of  the  liberal 
studies  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  literature;  the  course  of  study  is  a 
strict  unit,  and  the  modern  subjects  are  not  strongly  repre- 
sented. There  are  many  private  secondary  schools,  of  more 
recent  foundation,  but  they  lack  systematic  organization.  The 
English  scorn  the  practice  of  the  Germans  to  attach  special 
privileges  to  the  graduation  from  any  school,  and  consider  all 
that  pertains  to  education  a  private  affair. 

The  Catholic  secondary  schools  in  countries  having  freedom 
of  education,  such  as  Belgium,  Holland,  Switzerland,  the  United 
States,  etc.,  represent  a  still  older  type  of  educational  institu- 
tions. The  six  classes  of  the  Latin  school  constitute  the  sub- 
structure, and  two  additional  classes,  with  philosophy  as  the 
core  subject,  are  the  capstone  of  secondary  education.  In  the 
higher  classes  Latin  is,  to  some  extent,  the  language  of  the 
classroom;  nature  study,  geography,  and  history  are  begun  in 
the  lower  classes,  but  the  natural  sciences  are  taken  up  in  the 
two  last  years  only.  The  Ratio  Studiorum  Societatis  Jesu  of 
1832  describes  in  full  this  type  of  secondary  school;1  Pach tier's 
and  Schwickerath's  works  have  been  written  in  defence  of  the 
system.2 

The  Prussian  gymnasium  was  seriously  affected  by  the  vari- 
ous educational  movements  of  the  last  century,  and  the  other 
German  states  have  mostly  followed  the  lead  of  Prussia.  The 

1  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  s.  v.  Ratio  Studiorum. 

2  Pachtler,  Die  Reform  unserer  Gymnasien,  Paderborn,  1883;  Schwickerath, 
Jesuit  Education,  St.  Louis,  1903. 


THE    MODERN    SCHOOL   SYSTEM.  343 

Unterrichtsverfassung  of  1816,  framed  with  the  assistance  of  F.  A. 
Wolf  and  W.  v.  Humboldt,  stated  that  the  gymnasium  should 
aim  "not  only  to  impart  to  its  students  that  amount  of  classical 
and  scientific  knowledge  that  is  necessary  to  understand  and 
utilize  the  systematic  lectures  of  the  university,  but  also  to  im- 
bue them  with  the  spirit  of  a  refined  humanity."  The  branches 
of  study  were  selected  with  the  view  of  allowing  "each  student 
not  only  to  develop  his  own  powers,  both  scientific  and  artistic, 
but  also  to  study  and  practice,  as  much  as  possible,  the  special 
sciences. "  To  combine  the  classical  tendency  with  the  encyclo- 
pedic, was  obviously  the  aim  of  these  regulations.  The  minis- 
terial order  of  1837,  the  so-called  Blue  Book,  occasioned  by 
Lorinser's  pamphlet,  For  the  Protection  of  Health  in  the  Schools 
(Berlin,  1836),  follows  in  the  main  the  regulations  of  the  Unter- 
richtsverfassung, and  neither  did  the  program  of  studies  of  1856 
make  any  material  change.  But  the  school  regulations  of  1882 
made  undue  allowances  to  the  encyclopedic  tendency  at  the 
expense  of  the  classics.  The  Realgymnasium  with  the  nine  years' 
course  of  the  regular  gymnasium,  but  without  Greek,  was  es- 
tablished; and  the  gymnasium  suffered  also  in  that  the  number 
of  class  periods  for  religious  instruction  and  the  classics  was 
decreased  to  allow  for  a  proportionate  increase  for  the  modern 
subjects.  Finally,  in  1892,  the  Latin  composition  in  the  final 
examination  of  the  gymnasium  was  done  away  with.  It  is  only 
fair  to  demand  that  a  third  class  of  .gymnasium  be  now  estab- 
lished, i.  e.,  one  that  would  do  full  justice  to  the  basic  subjects; 
for  neither  the  gymnasium  with  its  heterogeneous  content  of 
classics  and  modern  studies,  nor  the  polymathic  Realgymnasium 
does  that.  Certain  university  subjects — such  as  theology,  study 
of  antiquity  (Altertumskunde],  philology,  history,  and  philoso- 
phy— require  an  unabridged  classical  course  in  the  preparatory 
school.  But  the  tendency  is  rather  in  the  opposite  direction, 
the  curtailing  of  the  classics.  Yet  there  is  real  need  for  an  insti- 
tution that  is  in  close  union  with  the  traditions  of  the  past  and 
thus  serves  as  a  countercheck  to  the  trend  of  the  age.  It  is  to 
-be  regretted  that  old  and  venerable  seats  of  learning  which  kept 
alive  the  noble  traditions  of  the  classical  studies,  like  the  Joa- 
chimsthal  Gymnasium  and  the  graue  Kloster  (both  in  Berlin), 
sank  to  the  level  of  the  amorphous  gymnasium  of  1882  and 
1892,  when  they  might  have  proved  the  representatives  of  a 
special  class  of  schools  that  would  meet  the  higher  needs  of 
mental  life.  It  is  likewise  to  be  regretted  that  the  princely 
schools  of  Saxony  and  the  splendid  Latin  schools  of  Wiirttem- 


344  MODERN  EDUCATION. 

berg  have  unwisely  modified  their  courses  of  study  in  imitation 
of  the  modernized  Prussian  gymnasium. 

In  its  external  form  the  Prussian  gymnasium  has  preserved 
the  old  type  of  Latin  school  of  six  classes,  though  the  work  is 
now  extended  over  a  nine  years'  course.  There  are  three  grades 
of  classes:  lower,  middle,  and  higher,  but  the  scope  of  these 
grades  is  not  stsictly  delimited.  The  schools  are  denominational, 
but  the  State  claims  exclusive  control  of  the  course  of  study, 
and  hence  the  free  development  of  a  system  of  study  based  on  a 
religious  foundation  is  not  to  be  thought  of. 

3.  Of  German  secondary  -schools,  the  Bavarian  gymnasium 
comes  nearest  to  the  educational  ideal  of  the  German  Renais- 
sance. The  philhellenism  of  Louis  I.,  which  inspired  the  King 
to  adorn  Munich  with  Greek  edifices,  is  likewise  expressed  in 
the  Bavarian  gymnasium  whose  core  subject  is  the  study  of  the 
ancient  classics.  The  school  regulations  of  1830  are  based  on 
the  course  of  study  outlined  by  Frederick  Thiersch,  the  disciple 
of  G.  Hermann  and  Herbart.  "The  ancient  classics  are  the 
centre  of  the  whole  course  of  instruction;  German,  history,  and 
philosophy  are  closely  co-ordinated  with  the  classics,  and  even 
religious  instruction  and  mathematics  are  correlated  as  closely 
as  possible  with  them.  The  so-called  problem  of  concentration, 
which  has  engaged  the  attention  of  all  gymnasial  reformers  since 
1830,  has  here  found  the  best  solution.  Its  internal  unity,  sim- 
plicity, and  correlation  make  the  curriculum  of  the  Bavarian 
gymnasium  perfect  in  its  kind."  The  Latin  school,  the  sub- 
structure of  the  gymnasium,  deals  with  the  formal  and  technical 
elements  of  language.  The  gymnasium  proper,  the  superstruc- 
ture, acquaints  the  students  with  the  writings  of  the  ancients  and 
stresses  the  philosophical  side.  Propaedeutic  studies  in  philosophy 
are  also  provided  for.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Thiersch  failed, 
despite  his  good  intentions,  to  discover  a  bond  that  would  have 
joined  organically  the  new  and  the  old-  Nevertheless,  his  work 
represents  one  of  the  most  important  of  modern  educational 
institutions,  and  Bavaria  has  preserved  a  secondary  school  that 
has  both  character  and  individuality. 

Up  to  tke  middle  of  the  I9th  century,  the  Austrian  gymna- 
sium remained  faithful  to  the  traditions  of  the  older  schools  of 
the  religious  orders,  but  after  the  educational  reform  of  Bonitz 
and  Exner,  in  1849,  ^  adopted  some  of  the  features  of  the  Prus- 
sian gymnasium,  without,  however,  breaking  entirely  with  the 

1  Fr.  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des  gelehrte n  Unterrichfs,  Leipzig,  1885,  p.  659. 


THE    MODERN    SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  345 

past.  The  course  of  eight  classes  combines,  according  to  the 
"plan  of  organization,"  the  four  grammar  classes  of  old  with 
two  classes  i-n  the  humanities  and  two  years  of  philosophy.  The 
four  lower  classes,  forming  the  lower  gymnasium  (Untergymna- 
sium),  are  distinct  in  gradation  from  the  upper  gymnasium 
(Obergymnasium)  and  offer  a  relatively  complete  course  in  the 
classics,  while  also  treating,  but  only  in  a  popular  way,  history, 
mathematics,  and  natural  history.  All  these  subjects  are  again 
taken  up  in  the  upper  gymnasium,  i.  e.y  the  four  higher  classes, 
where  they  are  to  be  taught  "from  a  more  scientific  viewpoint." 
But  the  subject-matter  of  mathematics  is  in  both  the  lower  and 
the  upper  gymnasium  treated  hurriedly  and  without  the  proper 
exercises.  The  aim  of  the  whole  gymnasium  is  "to  offer  a  higher 
general  education  by  means  principally  of  the  study  of  the 
ancient  classic  languages  and  their  literatures,  and  thus  to  pre- 
pare at  the  same  time  for  the  studies  of  the  university. "  Less 
importance  is  attached  to  the  classics  than  to  the  "mutual 
influence  that  the  different  subjects  have  upon  one  another. " 
The  modern  subjects  are  accorded  a  liberal  space  in  the  cur- 
riculum. The  writing  of  Latin  is  no  longer  the  aim  of  the  Latin 
teacher;  and  more  weight  is  attached  to  literary  and  historical 
matters  than  to  pure  linguistics.  Philosophy  is  taught  in  the 
upper  classes  as  a  propaedeutic  subject.  The  curriculum  is 
obligatory,  and  the  minutest  details  are  regulated  by  law.  But 
the  subject-matter  is  too  extensive  for  the  number  of  class 
periods  assigned,  and  the  work  should  be  distributed  over  nine 
years  instead  of  eight.  Most  of  the  Austrian  gymnasiums  are 
state  institutions.  Schools  under  the  control  of  municipalities  or 
of  the  religious  orders  can  not  be  recognized  as  public  schools, 
unless  they  conform  in  all  details  to  the  institutions  of  the 
State.  The  concessions  made  to  the  tendencies  of  the  age  in 
the  beginning  of  the  reform  have  had  at  least  this  one  good  ef- 
fect that  they  protected  the  Austrian  gymnasium  from  further 
losses  and  assured  it  a  natural  development. 

There  are  three  divisions  in  the  French  Lycee:  (i)  the  Divi- 
sion elementaire,  embracing  the  two  lowest  classes;  (2)  the 
Division  de  Grammaire,  so  called  because  the  object  of  its  three 
classes  is  the  mastery  of  French,  Latin,  and  Greek  grammar; 
(3)  the  Division  superieure  of  the  three  highest  classes,  whose 
work  is  distributed  over  a  four  years'  course  and  which  prepares 
for  the  Eaccalaureat  es  lettres  as  well  as  for  the  Eaccalaureat 
es  sciences.  Fourtoul  introduced,  in  1852,  the  bifurcation-sys- 
tem, which  divides  the  highest  division  into  two  sections,  one 


346  MODERN   EDUCATION. 

for  classical  and  the  other  for  science  studies.  This  system  was 
formally  abolished  by  Duruy  in  1863,  but  actually  it  is  still  in 
vogue  in  the  French  secondary  schools.  The  Lycees  are  con- 
nected with  boarding  schools;  they  form  a  part  of  the  Universite 
of  the  State,  and  are  noted  for  strict  uniformity  in  studies  and 
methods  of  teaching;  The  professors  are  trained  in  the  Ecole 
normale  superieure  in  Paris,  whose  course  includes,  besides  the 
school  subjects  and  faculty  lectures,  a  certain  amount  of  practice 
teaching.  The  municipalities  support  the  Colleges  communaux 
which  are  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Universite,  but  not  uni- 
form in  organization,  and  in  grade  frequently  no  higher  than 
trade  schools.  The  Petits  seminaires  were  originally  training 
schools  for  the  priesthood,  but  later  they  were  much  frequented 
by  students  who  wished  to  prepare  for  higher  secular  studies. 
But  now  that  the  government  has  deprived  them  of  all  rights, 
they  may  be  doomed  to  extinction. 

4.  While  the  gymnasium,  though  readjusting  its  course  to 
meet  more  general  educational  demands,  still  preserves  the  char- 
acter of  a  preparatory  school  for  the  learned  professions,  the 
Realschule,  a  new  type  of  school,  has  branched  off  from  the 
gymnasium  to  devote  itself  exclusively  to  fit  the  student  for 
such  mechanical  professions  as  require  a  certain  amount  of 
scientific  knowledge  besides  an  appreciation  of  the  international 
character  of  work,  and  call  for  a  broader  point  of  view.  The 
Realschule  may  be  traced  back  to  the  schools  established  by 
Semler  at  Halle  (1706)  and  by  Hecker  in  Berlin  (1847,  now 
the  Friedrich  Wilhelms  Realschule},  but  received  its  permanent 
organization  only  after  the  higher  technological  schools  for 
which  it  was  to  prepare,  had  become  firmly  established.  The 
State  was  slow  in  recognizing  the  new  departure,  and  even 
to-day  the  Realschule  has  neither  a  pronounced  character  nor  a 
fixed  place  in  the  national  educational  system.  The  patrons  of 
the  Realschule  strove  from  the  beginning  to  secure  for  the  new 
institution  a  scientific  foundation  like  that  of  the  gymnasium. 
But  they  could  not  agree  on  what  should  constitute  this  foun- 
dation. Some  educators  desired  that  the  mathematical  and 
natural  sciences  should  serve  as  a  foundation,  so  that  the  Real- 
schule might  complement  the  gymnasium  based  on  the  historical 
sciences  (Spilleke,  Kochly,  and  others).  Others  wished  the  study 
of  modern  languages  and  literatures  to  be  the  basis  of  the  Real- 
schule, so  that  the  latter  would  be  based  on  modern  philology, 
while  the  gymnasium  is  based  on  classical  philology  (K.  Mager). 
Others,  again,  wished  to  see  the  closest  possible  union  between 


THE    MODERN    SCHOOL   SYSTEM.  347 

the  gymnasium  arid  the  Realschule,  contending  that  both  should 
have  a  common  substructure.  Particularly  during  the  stormy 
years  of  1848  and  1849  did  men  expect  that  a  combination  of 
the  two  schools  would  bring  about  a  closer  union  between  the 
education  of  the  citizenry  and  that  of  the  state  officials,  and 
thus  result  ultimately  in  a  rapprochement  between  the  higher 
and  the  lower  classes.  There  are  some  educators  who  still 
expect  great  things  of  the  Realgymnasium.  But,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  not  even  the  meaning  of  this  term  has  as  yet  been  agreed 
upon.  Some  schoolmen  use  the  term  Realgymnasium  to  designate 
the  substructure  common  to  the  Realschule  and  the  gymnasium, 
as  in  the  experiments  made  in  Austria  in  1863.  Others  use  it  to 
designate  the  superstructure,  i.  e.,  the  courses  in  modern  sub- 
jects, as  in  the  debates  during  the  convention  of  the  Prussian 
rural  school  teachers  in  1848.  Finally,  a  third  class  use  it  to 
denote  a  gymnasium  with  the  regular  classical  course,  Greek 
alone  being  excluded,  as  in  the  Prussian  school  regulations 
of  1882. 

Prussia  preserved  some  historical  connection  between  the 
gymnasium  and  the  Realschule,  for  the  latter  tried  by  retaining 
Latin  (up  to  1882)  to  realize  the  aim  of  the  middle  classes  of 
the  gymnasium;  and  this  still  remains  the  policy  of  the  Real- 
gymnasium^  while  the  Realschule  is  based  on  the  study  of  mod- 
ern languages.  The  Austrian  Realschulen  were  first  organized  as 
a  part  of  the  elementary  school  system,  and  their  independent 
organization  dates  from  the  time  when  they  began  to  be  re- 
garded as  preparatory  to  the  technological  schools.  The  statute 
of  1851  treats  them  as  vocational  schools,  and  a  humanistic 
element  in  the  form  of  modern  language  studies  was  introduced 
only  within  recent  years.  France  has  no  organized  system  of 
real  schools;  the  respective  education  is  obtained  partly  in  the 
Instruction  secondaire  and  partly  in  vocational  schools. 

Modern  educational  needs  have  given  rise  to  a  great  variety 
of  schools  that  occupy  a  middle  place  between  the  elementary 
school  and  the  university.  Being  so  different  in  their  aims  and 
objects,  they  cannot  be  grouped  under  one  head.  The  following 
may  be  described  broadly  as  vocational  schools:  commercial 
schools,  trade  schools,  industrial  schools,  agricultural  schools, 
military  academies,  etc.  Present-day  female  academies  are  amor- 
phous institutions,  and  their  educational  organization  offers  un- 
usual difficulties,  owing  partly  to  the  vagueness  of  their  aim, 
viz.,  general  culture,  and  partly  to  the  false  notion — unknown 
in  former  times,  but  prevalent  in  our  age — that  girls  can  assimi- 


MODERN    EDUCATION. 

late  a  potpourri  of  educational  titbits,  but  are  too  weak  to  take 
a  course  of  study  seriously. 

5.  It  was  formerly  the  prerogative  of  the  university  to  foster 
the  mutual  interrelations  between  science  on  the  one  hand  and 
general  intellectual  life  and  the  work  of  the  learned  professions 
on  the  other.  Modern  conditions  have  very  much  increased 
the  points  of  contact  between  science  and  professional  work, 
and  to-day  we  demand  scientific  training  where  practical  train- 
ing was  formerly  considered  sufficient.  The  present-day  artist 
cannot  be  adequately  trained  in  a  master's  studio,  for  he  must 
be  at  home  in  the  history  of  his  respective  art,  in  aesthetics,  and 
anatomy.  If  the  youth  would  be  an  engineer,  he  must  frequent 
not  only  the  workshop;  if  a  merchant,  not  only  the  counting- 
house;  and  if  a  military  officer,  not  only  the  military  camp;  for 
the  technological,  commercial,  and  military  sciences  are  impor- 
tant factors  in  these  respective  vocations.  Technological  schools 
and  special  schools  of  many  kinds  offer  the  scientific  training 
necessary  to-day  in  many  mechanical  professions,  and  these 
schools  strive  to  be  equal  in  rank  to  the  universities.  But 
though  the  university  aims,  like  these  special  schools,  to  estab- 
lish a  connection  between  professional  work  and  science,  still  it 
has  also  another  and  higher  function:  to  cultivate  scientific 
research  and  learning  for  their  own  sake  and  thus  prove  the 
home  of  truly  liberal  culture.  The  discovery  of  new  knowledge 
is  as  essential  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  university  professor  as 
the  imparting  of  what  he  already  knows.  Equally  important  is 
another  factor  of  the  university,  the  stimulus  to  original  re- 
search on  the  part  of  its  students;  so  that  professor  and  students 
are  conceived  as  co-partners  in  the  great  business  of  truth- 
seeking.  Despite  the  specialistic  tendency  of  modern  scientific 
research,  the  four  faculties  of  the  university  are  still  united  by 
a  common  bond;  and  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the 
modern  world  to  special  privileges,  the  freedom  of  teaching  and 
learning  is  still  maintained  by  the  universities  as  the  guarantee 
for  the  ideal  evaluation  of  science,  and  as  the  connecting  link 
between  the  present  and  the  past  of  the  institutions  of  higher 
learning. 

What  has  been  said  above,  is  true  especially  of  the  univer- 
sities in  the  Germanic  countries.  The  German  universities  have 
preserved  in  the  main  the  characteristic  organization  of  the  old 
university,  but  have  introduced  some  new  features — seminars, 
obligatory  attendance  at  certain  lectures,  etc., — to  meet  prac- 
tical demands.  England,  however,  has  not  abandoned  'any  of 


THE    MODERN    SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  349 

the  old  traditions,  and  has  reserved  the  general  science  courses 
to  the  university  and  the  university  colleges,  while  the  voca- 
tional training  can  be  obtained  only  in  the  shops  and  homes  of 
professional  work.  In  trying  to  unify  all  the  parts  of  the  national 
system  of  education,  France  sacrificed  the  unity  of  the  univer- 
sity, and  has,  moreover,  divided  the  faculty  of  philosophy  into 
the  Faculte  des  lettres  and  the  Faculte  des  sciences;  the  College 
de  France  alone  bears  a  semblance  of  the  German  university. 
The  Catholic  universities,  founded  within  the  last  decades, 
have  undertaken  to  revive  the  glorious  traditions  of  the  old 
French  universities.  The  many  special  institutions  for  scientific 
research,  more  numerous  in  France  than  in  any  other  country 
(Ecole  des  langues  orienfales,  Ecole  des  chartes^  Museum  d'histoire 
naturelle^  Bureau  des  longitudes.  Conservatoire  des  arts  et  de  me- 
tiers',  etc.),  cannot  take  the  place  of  the  old  French  university 
with  which  the  noblest  traditions  of  the  nation  are  connected. 

6.  The  modern  system  of  education  as  a  whole,  especially  as 
organized  with  the  elementary  school  as  foundation  and  the 
university  as  capstone,  may  be  likened  to  a  national  system  of 
canals,  which  extend  in  many  different  directions,  and  which, 
after  receiving  their  water-supply  from  centrally  located  reser- 
voirs, carry  large  streams  of  water  over  a  vast  territory.  In 
the  modern  State  the  work  of  education  is  supported  by  public 
law,  maintained  by  the  general  interest,  and  made  a  regulated 
function  of  the  social  body  by  the  system  of  education.  The 
modern  system  of  education  is  an  efficient  factor  in  the  intel- 
lectual assimilation  of  men,  and  is  ever  engaged  in  raising  the 
intellectual  tone  of  all  classes.  The  course  of  study  embraces 
the  most  diversified  subjects,  and  because  of  this  many-sided- 
ness it  appeals  to  the  different  dispositions,  and  offers  many 
opportunities  for  developing  the  abilities  of  the  individual  for 
the  benefit  of  the  race.  A  complex  system  of  examinations 
compels  the  individual  pupil  to  acquire  the  knowledge  that  is 
imparted  in  his  respective  school,  and  thus  the  higher  schools 
and  the  professions  are  preserved  from  the  influx  of  unsatis- 
factory elements.  Intellectual  forces  of  all  sorts  are  at  work  to 
organize,  to  direct,  to  improve,  and  to  perfect  the  organism 
that  has  so  many  members. 

In  spite  of  all  these  favorable  conditions,  our  age  has  not 
only  not  outgrown,  but  has  not  even  utilized  all  that  was  of 
educational  value  in  the  past.  It  has  been  the  tendency  of  the 
modern  world  to  organize  the  whole,  to  attend  to  the  grand  total. 
This  tendency  has  led  us  to  reject  much  of  the  past  that  ap- 


35O  MODERN   EDUCATION. 

parently  did  not  fit  into  the  modern  system  of  education,  and 
hence  we  discarded  it  instead  of  modifying  it  to  meet  present 
conditions.  This'  is  to  be  regretted  the  more  since  we  have  as 
yet  found  no  adequate  substitute  for  what  was  cast  aside.  The 
smaller  German  universities  can  no  longer  keep  pace  with  the 
larger  and  better  equipped  institutions.  But  their  suppression 
would  be  a  serious  loss,  as  they  represent  unique  and  important 
sources  of  German  culture.  The  variety  that  obtained  formerly 
in  the  organization  of  the  German,  particularly  the  rural,  gym- 
nasiums was  likewise  an  advantage  to  plastic  adjustment,  for 
the  schools  could  adapt  themselves  to  meet  local  needs.  In 
this  respect  the  old  Latin  schools  of  England — each  of  them  is 
an  individual  and,  one  might  say,  a  character — are  superior  to 
the  German  gymnasiums  which  are  but  specimens  of  a  class.1 
And  even  if  the  elementary  school  alone  must  conform  in  all 
particulars  to  the  national  type  of  elementary  education,  there 
is  a  loss  of  those  valuable  educational  factors  that  result  from, 
local  conditions  and  historical  development. 

The  modern  school  system  has  built  educational  highways, 
and,  though  this  saves  the  labor  of  seeking  the  right  path,  it 
has  likewise  made  it  more  difficult  for  the  educator  to  take  any 
except  the  broad  and  beaten  road.  Home  instruction  was  for- 
merly recognized  as  an  important  element  of  the  system  of 
education.  The  majority  of  educationists  from  Locke  to  Herbart 
based  their  views  on  what  they  had  observed  in  home  instruc- 
tion, and  though  this  circumstance  narrowed  their  field  of  study, 
still  it  allowed  them  to  see  the  results  that  can  be  achieved  by 
giving  more  attention  to  the  individual;  and,  in  fact,  class  in- 
struction has  profited  much  by  their  discoveries.  At  the  present 
time,  however,  home  instruction  has  lost  all  significance.  Even 
when  attempted,  it  must  strain  all  energies  to  attain  the  high 
standard  of  the  modern  school  and  must  conform  so  closely  to 
the  school  curriculum  as  to  render  original  experiments  impos- 
sible. Yet  the  home  is  not  only  out  of  the  question  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  school,  it  even  lacks  the  time  and  the  opportunity 
to  contribute  something  of  its  own  individuality  to  the  instruc- 


1  In  another  work,  An$  Horsaal  und  Schulstube  (Freiburg,  2nd  ed.,  1912, 
p.  387),  Willmann  approves  heartily  of  the  autonomy  enjoyed  by  most  Ameri- 
can universities,  which  permits  them  to  adapt  themselves  to  changing  con- 
ditions and  to  revive  certain  practices  of  medieval  and  Renaissance  univer- 
sities; and  he  adds,  "This  is  academic  freedom,  genuine  adacemic  autonomy, 
a  great  social  boon  for  a  nation  and  one  that  outweighs  all  the  services,  how- 
ever great  they  be,  that  the  government  renders  the  state  universities." 


THE    MODERN    SCHOOL   SYSTEM.  351 

tion  imparted  in  school.  The  modern  school  has  often  been 
charged  with  making  such  demands  upon  the  time  and  energy 
of  its  pupils  that  the  latter  have  hardly  any  breathing  time  left 
to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  home  life,  and  even  less  opportunity 
to  receive  whatever  the  family  might  contribute  to  their  mental 
life. 

The  modern  system  of  education  is  in  every  regard  well 
adapted  to  make  intellectual  attainments  more  uniform.  But  it 
is  less  well  adapted  to  produce  a  strongly  individual  and  char- 
acteristic personality.  It  is  so  rich  in  content  as  to  satisfy  all 
intellectual  needs  even  before  they  can  be  felt  by  the  individual. 
So  much  general  knowledge  is  expected  of  the  modern  man  that 
he  cannot,  till  at  a  relatively  late  period  in  life,  consult  his  own 
preferences  in  the  selection  of  his  studies;  and  in  the  case  of  most 
men  individual  taste  can  never  assert  its  claim.  The  organi- 
zation of  modern  education  is  responsible  for  the  general  activity 
witnessed  in  the  field  of  learning  and  studies;  but  by  reason 
of  this  very  organization,  the  chief  motives  for  studying  are 
custom,  the  prospect  of  gain,  and,  at  best,  the  sense  of  duty;  and 
thus  the  spontaneous  and  individual  inclinations  are  checked. 
The  system  of  modern  education  is  very  comprehensive,  but 
fails,  nevertheless,  to  include  all  factors  of  intellectual  growth 
and  development,  for  it  thwarts  the  work  of  some,  while  allow- 
ing undue  influence  to  others. 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


ABC, 

(alphabet),  47,  121,  142,  149,162. 

of  the  moral  world,  126. 

of  the  sciences,  341. 
Academy, 

modern,  265  ff. 

of  Plato,  133,  143. 
^sop,  253. 
Aesthetic  element  in  education,  81, 

85,i35ff.,  i73ff. 
Aesthetics,  298  ff. 
Agricola,  263. 
Aims,  educational,  73. 
Albert  the  Great,  219. 
Alcuin,  198,217,  237. 
Alexander  of  Villedieu,  200,  252. 
Alexandria,  118,  145  ff. 
Alexandrian  Age,  145  ff. 
Algebra,  94,  231. 
Alkendi,  230. 
Ambition,  motive  in  education,  137, 

161,  176,245. 
Ambrose,  St.,  186. 
American  universities,  350. 
Anaxagoras,  127. 
Anaximander,  124. 
Anthologies,  190,  252,  326. 
Antisthenes,  141. 
Aphthonius,  130. 
Apprentices,  13,  206  ff. 
Apuleius,  I..,  154. 
Arabians,  215. 
Arabic,  229,  254. 
Archidamus,  135. 
Architecture,  103. 
Aretin,  25. 

Aristippus,  123,  133,  141. 
Aristotle,  3,  7,  20,  23,  83,  124,  129 

ff-,  J33,  i35ff->I59ff->i79»l8l> 
190,  204,  217,  219  ff.,  228,  231, 

235».255>29I>299,  331- 
Arithmetic,  100,  103,  126,  131,  152, 

179. 


Assimilation  of  the  young,  8  ff. 
Assyrian  education,  103  ff. 
Astronomy,  91,  99  ff.,  100,  103,  113, 

119,    120,    124,    126,    131,    152, 

179,  188,215. 
Athenian  education,  135. 
Augustine,  St.,  6,  154,  174,  175,  180, 

187  ff.,  190,  193,  216,  236,  247. 
Austria,  308  ff.,  344  ff. 

B 

Babylon,  103  ff.,  146. 

Bacon,    Francis,   222,  257  ff.,  262, 

266>  293.  3°°- 
Bahnsen,  63. 

Bahrdt,  332. 

Bain,  29. 

Bartholomaeus  Anglicus,  222. 

Basedow,  290,  294  ff,  307,  332. 

Basil,  St.,  183  ff.,  192,  247. 

Bavaria,  344. 

Bayle,  Pierre,  292  ff. 

Becher,  J.  J.,  65,  261. 

Bede,  The  Venerable,  198,  237. 

Belgium,  342. 

Bell,  Andrew,  96. 

Benedict,  St.,  193  ff. 

Benedictine    schools,    194,    198    ff, 

227,  270. 
Beneke,  29. 

Bernard  of  Chartres,  237. 
Bernard,  St.,  221,  222,  234  ff. 
Bhartfihari,  96. 

Bible,  175,  183,  185,  1 88,  190,  272  ff. 
quoted,  104,  107  ff,  146,  171,  176, 

179,189. 

Bishops'  schools,  193,  197,  201  ff. 
Boccaccio,  247. 
Boeckh,  325  ff,  329. 
Boethius,  190,  214,  217. 
Bonaventure,  St.,  200,  219. 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  201. 
Brick  Library,  103  ff. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX 


Brunette  Latini,  226. 
•Buffon,  300. 
Bundahish,  1 06. 
Burckhardt,  35. 


Caesar,  147,  149,  153,  167,  217. 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  235.] 
Calendar,  47,  100,  179,  216. 
Campe,  308. 
Canisius,  272. 

Canonical  (classical)  books,  90,  98, 
103,  105,  107,  112  ff.,  121,  147. 
Capella,  154,  189,214,  236. 
Carlyle,  48. 
Cassian,  192. 

Cassiodorus",  154,  190,  193,  214,  217. 
Catechism,  272. 
Catechumenate,  192  ff. 
Cathedral  schools,  202,  267,  274. 
Catholic  schools,  269  ft. 
Cato  Censorius,  152,  155,  159. 
Celsus,  153  ff. 
Chaldean  education,  103  ff. 
Chalotais,  La,  303. 
Charlemagne,  227. 
Charondas,  142. 
Chess,  game  of,  94. 
China,  in  ff. 
Chivalric    education,    197,    204    ff, 

232,238  ff. 

Christian  Doctrine,  190. 
Christian  education,  39  ff.,  170  ff., 
191  ff. 

aims  of,  1 70  ff. 

content  of,  177  ff. 
Christian  school  system,  191  ff. 
Christianity 

combines    individual    and    social 
views,  39  ff. 

introduces    higher   aims,    170   ff., 

239-. 

Chrysippus,  141. 

Chrysostom,  St.  John,  172,  185,  253. 
Church,  2,  39  ff.,  177  ff,  191   ff., 

195,  197  ff. 

Church  and  society,  317. 
Cicero,  150,  155,  157,  160  ff.,  186  ff., 

217,236,243,251  ff.,  255. 
City  schools,  207  ff. 


Civilization,  77  ff.,  82. 

Classics,    ancient,    240   ff.,    289   ff., 

326  ff. 

Clearchos,  141. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  173,  182. 
College,  211,  271,  340  ff,  see  also 

Gymnasium. 
College,  Jesuit,  342. 
Comenius,  23,  24,  41,  65,  86,  250, 

253,  ?56>  258  ff->  294- 
Commercial  schools,  310. 
Compendiums,  153  ff. 
Compensation,  law  of,  31;. 
Comte,  37  ff. 
Condorcet,  304. 
Confucius,  112  ff. 
Continuation  schools,  338. 
Copernicus,  256. 
Correlation,  336. 
Cosmopolitanism,  244,  285,  317. 
Councils  and  Synods  on  education, 

191,  202,  229. 

Course  of  study,  .wStudy,  course  of. 
Cramer,  44. 

Creuzer,  Friedrich,  119,  156. 
Crusius,  Martin,  253. 
Cynics,  143. 


D'Alembert,  290,  293. 

Daniel5  Prophet,  104. 

Dante,  133,  221,  226,  256,  263,  277. 

Dead,  Book  of  the,  98. 

Deism,  284,  288. 

Delitzsch,  Fr.,  105. 

Democritus,  136  ff.,  138,  141. 

Demonax,  136. 

Demosthenes,  191. 

Denmark,  273. 

Despauterius,  252. 

Development,  individual  and  racial, 

parallelized,  54  ff. 
Dialectic,  127  ff,  135,  154,  178,  188, 

214,217,255. 

Didactica,  23  ff.,  56  ff,  167. 
Didactics,  281. 

Didaktik,  see  Education,  5cience  of. 
Diderot,  289  ff.,  293. 
Diesterweg,  316. 
Dinter,  316. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX. 


Diodorus,  104. 
.  Diogenes,  136. 
Dionysius  Longinus,  146. 
Dionysius  Thrax,  130,  148. 
Discipline,  10  ff.,  95,  102,  113,  135, 

'39.. '73.  I95»a37- 
Disputation,  medieval,  218. 

Dominicans,  200. 
Donatus,  1 56. 
Dorotheus,  183. 
Dositheus,  166. 
Douris,  School  of,  123. 
Drawing,  124. 
Duns  Scotus,  227. 
Dupanloup,  332. 


E 


Ebers,  G.,  101. 

Eclecticism,  155,  190,  296,  321  ff. 

Edda,  85,  204. 

Education, 

general  and  vocational,  322  ff. 

history  of,  141. 

ideals  of,  83. 

intellectual,  17  ff. 

its  relation  to  culture,  79. 

joy  of,  137. 

moral,  13  ff,  116,  139. 

sociological  aspect  of,  22  ff. 

system  of,  1 7  ff.,  30,  72,  239. 

term   and   concept,   6  ff.,    14  ff, 
17,78. 

types  of,  80,  88. 

variations  of,  80  ff. 
Education,  science  of, 

difficulties  of,  64. 

division  of,  72  ff. 

history  of,  57  ff,  140  ff. 

methods  of,  62  ff.,  69  ff. 

much-needed,  66. 

scope  of,  23  ff,  56  ff,  72  ff. 
Egypt,  47,  89,  97  ff,  103,  118,  145, 

1 80,  192,  195. 
Elementary    school,    272    ff.,    312, 

337  ff- 

Eloquence,  154, 158  ff,  160,  244,  251. 
Emi/e,  307. 
Encyclopedias,   114,   130,   131,   153, 

190,  201,  222  ff.,  230,  257  ff., 

292  ff-,  337- 


Encyclopedic,  293  ff. 

England,  278  ff,  286,  301,  337  ff., 

348  ff. 
Enlightenment,  the  age  of,  282  ff. 

character  of,  282  ff.,  315  ff. 

content  of  education  of,  287  ff. 

educational  views  of,  24  ff,  27  ff. 

schools  in,  300  ff. 
Epicureans,  283. 
Epicurus,   143,   187,  244,  246,  251, 

263,  289. 

Eratosthenes,  132. 
Ernesti,  65,  291. 
Eruditio,  251. 
Ethics,  128. 

its  relation  to  the  science  of  edu- 
cation, 63. 
Ethnology,  its  relation  to  the  science 

of  education,  33  ff. 
Etienne,  Robert,  253. 
Euclid,  131,  136,  215,  219,  231,  336. 
Eusebius,  189,  220. 
Evolution,  320. 
Examinations,  system  of,  102,  115, 

168,349. 
Ezardi,  Esra,  no. 


Fables,  47,  93,  I22>  233- 

Family,  5. 

Fathers  of  the  Church  on  education, 

181  ff. 

Felbiger,  311. 
Female  academies,  347. 
Fichte,  52,  296. 
Filangieri,  306. 
France,  277  ff.,  286,  302  ff,  345  ff, 

349- 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  200. 
Franciscans,  200,  270. 
Francke,  A.  H.,  1 10,  309. 
Frederick  II.,  209. 
Freigius,  258  ff. 
French  Revolution,  303  ff,  316  ff. 


G 


Galen,  231. 
Galilei,  256. 
Gellius,  155. 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


Genetic  method,  320. 

Genovesi,  306. 

Geography,  68,  72,   103,   124,   131, 

264,  292,  334. 

Geometry,  100,  113,  126,  131,  179. 
Germany,  280  ff.,  307,  348. 
Gesner,  65,  291  ff. 
Goethe,  69,  280,  291,  299,  323. 
Gorgias,  128. 

Grammar,  91   ff.,  103  ff.,  no,  121, 
128,  130,  148  ff.,  164,  191,  202, 
214,  227,  252,  255,  263. 
Grammar  schools, 

in  England,  342. 

in  Greece,  144. 

in  Rome,  169. 
Greek,    148,    177,    227,    228,    243, 

253  #•,  327- 
Greek  education, 
content  of,  118  ff. 
ethos  of,  7,  32,  i34ff. 
Greelc  school  system,  141  ff. 
Greek  science  of  education,  10,  140, 

141. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  St.,  1 84  ff. 
Gregory  the  Great,  St.,  193  ff. 
Grimm,  Jacob,  50,  67,  81. 
Grossetete,  Robert,  228. 
Gruppe,  Otto,  119. 
Guild  schools,  198,  206  ff. 
Gutsmuths,  334. 
Gymnasium,  212,  270  ff,  340  ff.,  see 

also  College. 
Gymnasium,  Greek,  142  ff. 


Herrad  of  Landsberg,  223. 

Hesiod,  120,  191. 

High  school,  340  ff.,  see  also  Real- 

schule. 
Hindu-Arabic  notation,  94,  100,  113, 

216. 

Hippias  of  Elis,  1*28. 
Hippocrates,  131,  231,  235. 
History,  98  ff,  103,  107,  119,  129, 

1 80, 1 88,  220,  249,  292, 320,  333. 
its  relation   to  education,   40  ff., 

44  ff- 

Hobbes,  3. 
Holland,  342. 
Home  education,  350  ff. 
Homer,  85,  120,  122,  138,  151,  183, 

186,191,253,289. 

Horace,  151,  166,  190,  217,  252,  283. 
Hugh  of  St.  Victor,  224,  225,  234  ff. 
Humanism,  35,  241  ff.,  274  ff. 
Humanitas,  77,  161  ff. 
Humboldt,  W.  v.,  8. 


Ibn  Sina  (Avicenna),  230. 

India,  47,  89,  90  ff. 

Individualism,  27  ff,  245,  285  ff,  350. 

Innocent  III.,  202,  228. 

Instruction,  i  5. 

Intellectualism,  286. 

Isidore  of  Seville,  190,  223. 

Isocrates,  129,  136,  141. 

Italy,  209  ff.,  265,  275  ff.,  306. 


Hamitic  influences  in  Greek  educa- 
tion, 1 1 8. 

Hebrew,  227  ff.,  254. 

Hebrew  education,  106  ff. 

Hecker,  J.  J.,  310. 

Hegel,  329. 

Helwig,  Cristopher,  23. 

Heraclitus,  125,  135,  138. 

Herbart,  28  ff,  32,  42  ff,  52,  54  ff., 
57  ff.,  67,  69,  329  ff.,  336,  350. 

Herder,  280,  291,  299. 

Heredity,  intellectual,  9  ff,  140. 

Hermetic  Books,  98. 

Hermogenes,  130. 


Janssen,  221. 

Jerome,  St.,  186,  220,  229. 

Jesuits,  246,  251,  253,  266,  269  ff, 

271,  306,  311- 

John  Damascene,  St.,  141,  191. 
John  of  Salisbury,  237. 
Joseph  II. ,31 1,  314. 
Joshua  ben  Gamla,  no. 
Jung,  Joachim,  23. 
Jurisprudence,  128. 
Juvenal,  161,  21  7. 


Kallias,  121. 

Kant,  50,  290,  296,  329  ff.,  334. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX. 


Kapp,  44. 
Kebes'  Pinax,  253. 
Kehrbach,  44. 
Kindermann,  31 1. 
Koran,  229,  232. 


Lactantius,  186. 

Lanfranc,  229. 

Language,  art  of,  116,  120  fF.,  156, 
179,  243  fF.,  328,  see  also  Rhet- 
oric. 

Latin,  148,  177,  203,  227,  251  ff.,  327. 

Latin  schools  in  England,  279  fF. 

Lazarus,  33. 

Lefebre,  253. 

Leibniz,  52,  266,  329. 

Lepsius,  98. 

Lessing,  291. 

Letter  writing,  263  fF. 

Liberal  arts,  129  fF.,  182,  189,  194, 
203,  213  fF.,  230,  255. 

Liberal  and  illiberal  arts,  157  fF., 
171  fF. 

Liberal  education, 

in  Greece,  121  fF.,  135  fF. 
in  Rome,  157  fF. 

Libraries,  101,  103,  113,  145,  146. 

Liebig,  221 . 

Life,  social  and  organic,  4  fF. 

Lilienfeld,  38. 

Linos,  1 20. 

Literacy,  96,  99. 

Literature,  92,  101  fF.,  150  fF.,  182  fF., 
219,227. 

Living  body,  St.  Paul  on  the  sym- 
bolism of  the,  2. 

Livius  Andronicus,  1 50. 

Livy,  190,  252. 

Locke,  27,  296,  301,  307,  316,  350. 

Logic,  94,  128,  130,255,257. 

Lucan,  217. 

Lucilius,  149. 

Lully,  Raymond,  258. 

Luther,  233,  248  fF.,  272. 

Lyceum  of  Aristotle,  143. 


M 


Many-sidedness,  138, 174, 176,  321  fF. 
Maps,  100,  258. 
Maria  Theresa,  311. 
Mathematics,     124,     126     fF.,     129, 

i52fF.,  1 88,  335  fF. 
Maurists,  270. 

Mechanistic    conception    of   educa- 
tion, 324. 
Medes,  103  fF. 
Medici,  Cosimo  de',  265. 
Medieval  education, 

content  of,  213  fF. 

defects  of,  239. 

ethos  of,  234  fF. 

Medieval  school  system,  196  fF. 
Melanchthon,  249,  257,  268,  273,  292. 
Memory  helps,  105,   107,  121,  125, 

132,  238. 

Middle  Ages,  see  Medieval  education. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  29,  63. 
Minucius,  Felix,  186. 
Mirabeau,  303  fF. 
Mischna,  1 1  o. 
Mnemonic  verses,  238. 
Modern  education, 
i  character  of,  315  fF. 

content  of,  324  fF. 
Modern  languages,  263,  328,  345. 
Modern  school  system,  337  fF. 
Mohammedan  education,  229  fF. 
Mohl,  25,  57. 
Mommsen,  165.. 

Monastic  schools,  192  fF.,  197,  273  fF. 
Monitorial  system  of  instruction,  96. 
Montaigne,  246,  252,  289. 
Montesquieu,  298. 
Moral  statistics,  35  fF. 
Moralism,  285. 
Morhof,  258  fF. 
Miiller,  Max,  91  fF. 
Murmelius,  41. 
Musaeus,  1 19. 
Museums,  ancient,  14;  fF. 
Music,   93,    99,    101,    108    fF.,    113, 
121  fF.,  126,  132,  136,  152,  174, 
179,215. 


N 


Maimonrdes,  1 10. 
Manu,  Code  of,  96. 


Niigelsbach,  67. 
Napoleon,  306,  316. 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


National  element  of  education,  6, 
204,263,295,317. 

Nationalism,  317  ff. 

Natural  sciences,  101,  131,  188, 
221  ff.,  230,  256,  299  ff.,  335  ff. 

Nature  peoples,  8  ff.,  84. 

Neander,  Michael,  254,  268. 

Neo-Platonists,  134,  140,  155. 

Neo-Pythagoreans,  155. 

Newman,  J.  H.,  188. 

Newspapers,  114,  329,  337. 

Nibelungs,  233. 

Nicholas  of  Damascus,  133. 

Niebuhr,  221. 

Nineveh,  103  ff.,  146. 

Notation,  system  of,  see  Hindu- 
Arabic  notation. 


Oratorians,  279. 
Organism,  social,  i  ff.,  39  ff. 
Oriental    education,    88    ff,    90    ff, 

118  ff. 

Origen,  1 82  ff. 
Orpheus,  1 1 9. 

Oettingen,  Alexander  von,  35,  37. 
Ovid,  127,  1 60,  252,  285. 


Pachomius,  St.,  192. 
Paideia,  34  ff.,  135  ff.,  162,  238. 
Palace  schools,  203  ff. 
Palmer,  67,  332. 
Pamphilos  of  Sicyon,  124. 
Panini,  92. 
Papyrus,  145. 

Parish  schools,  202  ff.,  274. 
Patrick,  St.,  192. 
Paul,  St.,  2,  146,  178. 
Paulsen,  269. 

Pedagogy,  21  ff.,  24  ff.,  30  ff.,  40  ff. 
its  relation  to  the  science  of  edu- 
cation, 56  ff.,  61  ff. 
Peking  Academy,  1 1  5. 
Perdonnet,  36. 
Pergamum,  146. 
Perrault,  265. 
Persian  education,  103  ff. 
Personality,  79,  108,  137,  240  ff. 
Pestalozzi,  42,  67  ff,  316,  328,  334, 
336,  338  ff- 


Petrarch,  187,  245,  282. 

Petronius,  i  58  ff. 

Philanthropinism,  67  ff,  290,  307  ff. 

Philology,  132,  179,  190,  259  ff,  325. 
comparative,  328. 

Philosophy,  124  ff,  127,  129,  133, 
155,  165,  179  ff,  224,  231, 
256  ff,  288,  296  ff.,  329  ff. 

Philosophy    .schools,    ancient,     124, 

i33»  '43  ff-»  '55- 
Physical  culture,   85,  99,   101,   123, 

'  1 88. 

Piarists,  270,  311. 

Pietism,  288  ff.,  309  ff. 

Pindar,  138. 

Pius  II.  (Aeneas  Silvius),  262,  276. 

Plagiarisms,  medieval,  236. 

Plato,  2  ff,  17,  22,  27,  32,  40  ff.,  52, 
89,  TOO,  122,  125  ff,  135,  139  ff, 
143,  172,  181,  183,  1 86,  204, 
2i9ff,  228,239,255,306. 

Platonists,  179,  181,  189. 

Plautus,  151,  161,  1 86,  252. 

Pliny  the  Elder,  154. 

Pliny  the  Younger,  154,  160. 

Plutarch,  i,  141,  191. 

Poelitz,  25. 

Poetry,  132,  151,  see  also  Literature. 

Poland,  305  ff. 

Political  economy,  128. 

Pombal,  306. 

Porphyrius,  217. 

Possevini,  250,  270. 

Prayer,  107  ff.,  248. 

Press,  see  Newspapers. 

Priests  and  education,  80,  88  ff., 
94ff.,97,  99, 101  ff,  105,  ngff., 
124,140,179,233,270. 

Priscian,  235. 

Prophets,  Schools  of  the,  108. 

Protagoras,  128. 

Protestant  schools,  268. 

Protestantism,  248  ff. 

Prussia,  309  ff,  340,  342  ff. 

Psychology,  relation  of  education  to, 
28,  33  ff,  63. 

Ptolemy,  231. 

Pythagoras  and  his  philosophy,  124 
ff,  127,  140,  143  ff,  150,  179, 
181  ff,  336. 

Pythagoras,  theorem  of,  131. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX. 


7 


Quadrivium,  214  ff.,  256. 
Quintilian,    148,    150   ff.,    153,    160, 
167,  243,  H5»253- 
R 

Raikes,  Robert,  301. 

Ramus,  Peter,  255  ff. 

Raphael,  276  ff. 

Rationalism,  284. 

Ratke,  23,  41,  57,  110,  252,  266. 

Raumer,  Karl  von,  44,  261. 

Reading  and  writing,  85  ff.,  96,  99, 

121,142,144,165,191. 
Realgymnasium,  343. 
Realism,  261  ff. 
Realschule,  310,  313,  346  ff. 
Recitations,  123,  151,  163  ff. 
Reconstruction,  social,  4  ff. 
Refinement,  moral,  78. 
Reformation,  268  ff. 
Reformers,  educational,  40  ff. 
Religion,  80,  134,  139  ff,  147,  170  ff.,. 

195,  234  ff.,  247  ff,  284  ff,  331  ff. 
Religious  instruction,  see  Theology. 
Rhabanus  Maurus,  216,  223,  237. 
Rhetoric,  93,  130,  144,  i^ff,  i64ff, 

178,  188,  191,  199,  214,  217  ff, 

243>  255- 
Renaissance, 

term  and  meaning  of,  241  ff. 

educational    institutions    of    the, 

265  ff. 
Renaissance  education, 

character  of,  240  ff. 

content  of,  250  ff. 

in  the  different  countries,  274  ff. 
Reuchlin,  no,  241;,  254. 
Richelieu,  266. 

Ritter,  Karl,  68,  72,  329,  334. 
Rococo,  242. 
Rolland,  302. 
Rollin,  291,  302. 
Roman  education, 

content  of,  147  ff. 

ethos  of,  157  ff. 
Roman  pedagogy,  1 53. 
Roman  school  system,  162  ff. 
Romanticists,  317. 
Roth,  67. 
Roth,  Edward,  119,  126. 


Rousseau,  27  ff.,  4i,  52,  290,  298, 

306  ff,  316,  318,  334. 
Russia,  305  ff. 


S 


Sacchini,  270. 

Sallust,  190,  217. 

Salons,  302. 

Salzmann,  308. 

Sardinia,  306. 

Savigny,  50. 

Scalig'er,  253. 

Schaffle,  38. 

Schelling,  329. 

Schiller,  291. 

Schleiermacher,  59  ff. 

Schmid,  K.  A.,  44. 

Scholasticism,  217  ff,  231,  248. 

School  and  life,  322  ff. 

School  feasts,  238. 

Schwarz,  43  ff. 

Science,  20  ff.,  81,  124,  154,  178  ff., 
183  ff. 

Science  of  education,  see  Education, 
science  of. 

Self-activity,  137,  237  ff. 

Seminary,  270,  339. 

Semitic  influences  in  Greek  educa- 
tion, ii  8. 

Seneca,  2,  155,  158,  165,  190,  217. 

Sensualism,  286. 

Sertorius,  166. 

Shakespeare,  279. 

Smith,  Adam,  301. 

Social  atomism,  285. 

Society,  I  ff. 

Sociology,  auxiliary  to  the  science  of 
education,  21. 

Socrates,  20,  129,  138  ff,  144,  282  ff. 

Socratic  method,  129. 

Song  schools,  192. 

Sophists,  128  ff,  1-55  ff,  165,  176, 
282  ff. 

Sorbonne,  211. 

Spain,  306. 

Spartan  education,  135. 

Spencer,  29. 

Speusippus,  127. 

Spurius  Carvilius,  162. 

State  and  Church,  338. 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


State  and  education,  25,  115,  142, 

144,    i58»    l63.    l66  ff-,     2?3, 
3ioff,  316,  3i9ff,  349. 

Stein,  Lorenz  von,  25  ff.,  57. 

Steinthal,  35. 

Stobaeus,  141. 

Stoics,  128,  133,  139,283. 

Strabo,  131,  146. 

Study,  course  of,  125  ff.,  336. 

Sturm,  John,  244,  268,  271. 

Suetonius,  164. 

Sulpicius  Severus,  220. 

Summer  schools,  338. 

Sweden,  273. 

Switzerland,  342. 


Tacitus,  1 60. 

Talmud,  no. 

Tarsus,  146. 

Teacher,  95,  105,  116,  191,  208,  235. 

remuneration  of,  136. 

training  of,  192  ff.,  269,  312,  339. 
Teaching,  10  ff.,  138. 
Temple  schools,  195. 
Terence,  151,  217,  252. 
Thales,  124. 
Thaulow,  44. 
Theatines,  270. 
Theatre,  123,  151. 
Theodore  of  Tarsus,  227. 
Theology,  88,  90,  96,  102,  105,  109, 
119,    126,    134,    139,    147,    156, 
175  ff.,   179,   194,  202,  288  ff., 
301  ff. 

Theophrastus,  141  ff. 
Thomas  Aouinas,  St.,  200,  219,  228, 

236  ff.,'  248  ff. 
Tradition,  8  ff.,  1 1  ff.,  16. 
Trapp,  28,  290,  316. 
Traveling,  art  of,  264. 
Trendelenburg,  49,  308,  331. 
Trivium,  214  ff.,  25*;. 
Trotzendorf,  no,  252,  268. 


Uniformity  of  schools,  343  ff,  350. 
United  States,  342. 
Universite,  305,  346. 
Universities,  167,  169,  198,  208  ff., 

266  ff.,  313  ff.,  348  ff.,  350. 
Utilitarianism,   100,    136,   152,   285, 

309  ff.,  313,  321. 
Utrenheim,  Cristopher  von,  52. 

V 

Valla,  244,  289. 

Varro,  153  ff,  180. 

Veda,  go  ff. 

Verbalism,  261  ff. 

Vergil,  151,  190,  217,  243,  252. 

Vernacular,  263,  265,  272. 

Vincent  of  Beauvais,  201,  225,  257. 

Vittorino  da  Feltre,  253,  267,  275. 

Vives,  Luis,  187,  247,  255,  257  ff., 

263,  266. 

Vocation,  origin  of  term,  172. 
Vocational  edvcation,  136,  142,  144, 

1 57  ff,  1 72,  206,  313, 335, 347  ff. 
Volt?ire,  .146,  297. 

W 

Wackernagel,  Philip,  67. 
Waitz,  Theodore,  29,  33. 
W7illiams,  David,  301. 
Wirckelmann,  280,  299. 
Wolf,  F.  A.,  67,  325  ff. 
Women,  edvcation  of,  245,  347. 
Wuttke,  Heinrich,  86. 

X 

Xenophanes,  125,  13^. 
Xenophon,  253. 
Ximenes,  Cardinal,  229. 


Zeno,  141. 
Zoroaster,  105. 


17 


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